Death Connection Game
by siennahime-sama
Summary: FRom the game
1. Chapter 1 Gloria

Death Connection – Gloria

At 32 years old, Gloria is the oldest member in the group. Along with Medicis, Gloria used to be Dalenzio's right hand in the family. He respects Dalenzio a lot, and he was the family's advisor who prioritized the rules over everything else. Due to his serious nature, Gloria hates any kind of betrayal and finds it hard to forgive traitors despite the reason. Everyone loves teasing him since he seems popular with women, even though he doesn't have any ulterior motives.

On the night of the accident, Gloria was actually looking for his younger brother — Nicholas. Nicholas didn't return to the mansion that night, and in the end Gloria died before he could find his brother. After Amelia summoned him as a shinigami, Gloria finds it weird that Nicholas isn't  
summoned as well, but soon he finds out the reason when Nicholas suddenly appears in the mansion. Three years ago Nicholas actualy died in Claudia's hands, and he became Nicole to give Gloria a hint about who killed him back then.

While Amelia is in charge of the kitchen, Gloria takes care of maintenance in the mansion. They go shopping together for the necessary materials, unaware that Vicious is tailing them with a mischievous smile. He tells everyone that Gloria and Amelia get along really well, so Nicole is disappointed that nothing "exciting" happened between them lol. Gloria is also the first victim of Nicole's love lesson, as Nicole tells him to strip the moment he comes into the room. He refuses to "embrace" (read: have sex with) a woman (in this case.. Nicole lol) he doesn't love though, which makes both Nicole and Amelia go "embrace..? (´・ω・`)?" Since Amelia gets too nervous around men because of this, Gloria takes her out on a date and explains that everything starts from love. Amelia needs to find a man she loves first, then she'll learn stuff from there.

One day, Nicole disappears after having a fight with Nicholas. Gloria is surprised upon seeing his younger brother back, and later on he goes to ask Nicholas about what happened after he got killed by Claudia. While Gloria was an important figure in the Salvatore Family, Nicholas had a complex since he couldn't get out of Gloria's shadow. He approached Claudia hoping he can get some recognition by providing important information, but his plan failed when Claudia killed him instead. Realizing that he was the reason behind Nicholas' desperation, Gloria feels really bad and apologized for not understanding him sooner.

Since Amelia finds Gloria and Nicholas so different from each other, they explain it's because they were born from different mothers. Gloria's parents divorced when he was small, and he became brothers with Nicholas after they remarried. Even though Nicholas tells him not to feel guilty, Gloria's mind is still filled with regret. That night Gloria confides in Amelia that he always walks forward without turning back, and that's why he doesn't realize a lot of things. He might be able to solve the connection between Nicole and Nicholas if he turns around, but he didn't. Gloria then admits it's because his life is full of regret, so that's all he sees whenever he looks back. After saying he doesn't want her to live that way, Gloria moves closer towards Amelia.. until Nicholas comes in, goes Σ(〃д〃)ﾊｯ! at this scenery, and leaves with the wrong idea lol.

Unfortunately, the situation takes a turn for the worse when Nicholas mentions Luciano's past betrayal. Everyone else are willing to let it slide, but Nicholas keeps raging at them for being so lenient. When he shouts at Amelia and calls her an "outsider", Gloria drags Nicholas out and tells him not to treat her that way. On top of being Dalenzio's daughter, Amelia also takes care of them everyday — she's not an outsider. Gloria tells Nicholas not to provoke his anger more than this, saying it's better to have Nicole instead of him. Soon Amelia comes into the room and Nicholas runs off, so Gloria apologized to her in his brother's place.

Knowing they have to do something about Guido's commands, Medicis tells everyone the best way is to ask Guido directly. This plan won't run smoothly, but Nicholas says he'll take the task alone. At night he takes Gloria out for a drink, and since Gloria invites Amelia as well, they end up drinking in Filippo's restaurant instead of the bar. While Amelia isn't sure about the meaning behind the summoning, Gloria says he believes Dalenzio knows what he was doing. He's glad to have met Nicholas again, and the encounter with Amelia is important to him. (人´∀`) ゜'・:* Nicholas might find those worlds embarrassing, but Gloria really means what he said. He uses a different approach whenever he's hitting on a girl, like "can we do it tonight?"

The next day, Nicholas infiltrates Guido's mansion just as planned. He kills Claudia not too long after Gloria and Medicis arrived for backup, but they couldn't find Guido in the mansion. Since Nicholas already got his revenge, Gloria doesn't know what will happen to him from now on.. but he's ready to accept the outcome. Even if he turns into Nicole again, it doesn't change the fact that they're brothers. Gloria asks if Amelia isn't scared with all of this. She was supposed to live a peaceful life in the church, but now she has to deal with mafia and shinigami. Not to mention Guido can put Gloria under his command anytime. When Amelia says she's not afraid, Gloria hugs her and tells her not to worry — it's now his turn to settle things with his past.

Since Amelia asks Nicholas to accept Nicole's existence, the two of them ends up splitting into two different existence by the next morning. Obviously everyone goes ( Д ) ﾟ ﾟ when both of them enter the dining room, though nobody understands the exact reason behind this weird happening. Not even Nicole herself. Later on, Gloria tells Amelia that Nicholas enters the family upon his request. Back then Gloria was worried since Nicholas kept jumping from one woman to another. He couldn't leave Nicholas to ruin his own life, so he was relieved when Dalenzio welcomed Nicholas into the family. Gloria also tells Amelia that while Dalenzio was truly a kind man, nobody knew what's on his mind. The shinigami contract is a good example.

That evening, everyone was having a discussion when Guido suddenly sends his command. Joshua tries to escape with Amelia, but she keeps resisting until eventually Gloria faints along with Luciano and Medicis — the sign that Jean's trolling Guido again on the other side. Before opening his eyes, Gloria thinks he's in heaven because a warm light is enveloping him.. and he wakes up to find Amelia by his side. He's glad to see her okay, but he also feels terrible as a loyal member of the Salvatore Family. It's his duty to protect Amelia as the boss' daughter, and yet Guido's orders work like an instant brainwash to him.

Gloria then asks what they mean to her, and when Amelia replies with "a family".. he pulls her onto his bed. ||萌||ョ´∀`。)萌えぇ～↑ Amelia wonders if he's protecting her only because she's Dalenzio's daughter, but then Gloria admits there's another reason: "because you're cute, so I want to treasure you." ｷｭ─(*´Д`*)―ﾝ Since Amelia is still a novice in romance, Gloria asks what she wants to do from here. Getting off the bed is out of the question, since they're about to reach the good part. OMG GLORIA WHY ARE YOU SO HOT. (*´Д`)ﾊｧﾊｧ Sadly this moment is interrupted when Nicole comes in looking for him. Gloria says he's currently "busy" and she quickly leaves with a teasing smile, but then Gloria releases Amelia so they can talk normally.

Some days later, Gloria invites Amelia on a date. They drink coffee together in a cafe, where he tells her everything about him and Nicholas. Gloria's parents were both teachers, but their marriage was filled with endless arguments. His mother suddenly left when he was 10, and 2 years later his father introduced him to his new mother — along with Nicholas. Gloria's opinion of his father dropped upon learning that he had a son with another woman, but he can accept Nicholas as his new brother. Despite Gloria's efforts to become a good big brother, they didn't get along at all since Nicholas kept rejecting him. Gloria found it hard to accept his new family, and he eventually left home to join the police force at the age of 18. He never contacted them again ever since. It wasn't necessary, and he wasn't interested.

Not too long after Gloria became a detective, he was reunited with Nicholas in town. Just like Gloria, Nicholas had left home as well. The difference is while Gloria was living independently, Nicholas was leeching off his girlfriends instead. Gloria tries to support him, but Nicholas didn't stop until he landed his eyes on a mafia boss' woman. Obviously the mafia boss was enraged and killed their parents, though instead of feeling guilty.. Nicholas was more busy pleading for Gloria's help. Instead of sheltering him, Gloria gave him some money to buy weapons and told him to settle things with his own hands. Nicholas managed to kill the mafia boss, but sadly he was captured by the rest of the family. Apparently they bribed Lambert to find him, and Gloria hates the money-hungry fiend ever since.

Feeling that he's the one who drove Nicholas towards this mess, Gloria eventually quit his job. He desperately searched for a way to save his brother, which led him to the Salvatore Family. In return of saving Nicholas', Dalenzio recruited Gloria into the family as a partner for Medicis. Gloria didn't regret this decision at all, but Nicholas has been blaming himself ever since. Since Nicholas has a serious attitude problem, Gloria hopes Amelia can understand him better after hearing about their past.

On their way home, Lambert suddenly appears to greet Gloria with his cynical "Hello there, Mr. Ex-Detective." ( ಠ_ಠ ) Amelia gets pissed when Lambert starts insulting Gloria, but he tells her not to mind. If he wants to blame someone, he should blame himself. After all, he was the one who refused to protect Nicholas back then. Amelia then wonders if Gloria was summoned so he can clear all the misunderstandings with Nicholas, and he smiles saying it'd be nice if they can really become brothers someday.

Noticing that Amelia is growing some feelings for Gloria, Nicole tries to help them by telling her that Gloria's actually married. Amelia gets nervous upon meeting Gloria in town, but soon she learns that it's only a lie lol. After seeing how his family crumbled apart, Gloria isn't interested in marriage. As long as he can stay with the woman he loves, he doesn't really care about the shape of their relationship. Obviously this doesn't work well with most ladies, so all of Gloria's ex-girlfriends left upon learning that he doesn't have any intentions to marry them. In contrary to Gloria's opinion, Amelia admires the idea of getting married and thinks he looks like the type who would treasure his wife.

When they stop by the park, Gloria asks Amelia to spend some time in the florist. He's meeting up with someone today, so she goes away thinking he's waiting for a woman. Well, he is.. but the woman is actually Serbia. Gloria wants to settle things with her, and her betrayal isn't the only reason. After thinking more thoroughly about the summoning, Gloria realized that Dalenzio probably made contracts with them to protect Amelia. That means he also prepared something for her to call her shinigami with, but that something fell into someone else's hands. Yes, he's talking about the stolen Erebos ring, and he suspects the thief was either Serbia or Luciano.

After a long silence, Serbia finally admits that it wasn't her. She knew that Luciano stole it, but she never told anyone because she was shocked. Serbia learned about this on the same day when the Tarantino Family kidnapped her daughter, not to mention she was also the one who introduced Luciano to Dalenzio. However, Gloria can't forgive her despite the reasons. If only she told somebody about Luciano's betrayal, Nicholas wouldn't have to die in Claudia's hands. It doesn't change the fact that Serbia was the one who killed Dalenzio either, so Gloria finally settles things by stabbing her to death — not even giving her a chance to say goodbye to her subordinates in Night Gate.

Obviously Amelia is shocked upon seeing Serbia bleeding on the ground, but Gloria drags her home before anybody comes. When she cries and asks why he went that far, he tells her to shut up. Kids like her shouldn't poke their noses into this issue. Amelia resists saying she's not a kid, and Gloria shouts at her for behaving like one. Later on Medicis takes care of disposing Serbia's body, but Amelia now thinks Gloria is a cold-blooded killer — just like Joshua's opinion about mafia in general. Gloria says he still wants to protect her, but sadly Amelia's being a brat by saying "I didn't wish to be born as your boss' daughter!" ( ´_ゝ`) She doesn't care even if Gloria gets angry, and she chases him out saying she hates him.

That night Gloria goes to the bar alone, while Amelia climbs out of the window and sneaks out of the mansion. He finds her waiting in front of the bar, and she apologized for saying terrible things to him earlier. Gloria also apologized for killing Serbia, but he wants her to give up since Serbia is no longer alive. Gloria then asks if she's scared of him now, since something similar might happen again in the future. The only thing Gloria can say for certain is that he won't ever hurt Amelia on purpose. If he has to kill someone else someday, the only thing he can do is to apologize to her after washing the stress away with alcohol. Like what he's doing now.

It turns out that Gloria was really shocked when Amelia said she hates him. He won't ask her to love him, he just doesn't want to be hated by her. However, Gloria then starts contradicting himself since he's drunk tonight. When Amelia says she doesn't hate him, Gloria hugs her from behind and says "then say you love me". (❤ฺ￫艸￩) Amelia asks if he's drunk, but Gloria insists that he's perfectly aware of what he's doing. Soon he falls asleep on her back, so she carries him all the way back to the mansion lol. Gloria doesn't remember anything when he wakes up though, and the last thing he can remember is meeting Amelia in front of the bar. He feels that he said something to her, but Amelia gets embarrassed and says it'd be better if Gloria doesn't remember. This causes him to wonder if he did something naughty to her last night LOL.

In the morning, a bunch of opera invitations are delivered to the mansion. It's obviously another challenge from Guido, and everyone decides to accept it. Including Amelia, because her life is still in danger even if she stays in the mansion. Since Guido might order his shinigami to attack her again, Gloria tells her to stick to Nicholas and the others at all times. She can only pray for their safety, but it's more than enough for him. Jean also appears to give them a hint: each of them is related to the Seven Deadly Sins, and they possess different kinds of power for this reason. He wants to see those power in action, so they have to hurry before the limit comes.

On the night of the opera, Amelia and her shinigami are welcomed by Lambert and his men. He was obviously bribed by Guido again, and it doesn't take long until he commands his troops to attack them. Everything should be fine as long as Amelia and Joshua are unharmed, but things take a turn for the worse when Guido suddenly orders Gloria, Luciano and Medicis to get their anti-shinigami weapons and kill everyone else. Both Nicholas and Joshua got slashed as they protect Amelia from Gloria, but eventually Jean comes to troll stop the battle. He shoots Gloria multiple times; and as Amelia, Nicholas and Joshua are escaping with the unconscious Gloria, Jean sends Luciano and Medicis back to hell, then erases both Guido and Castro afterwards.

The reason? Because Jean wants all six shinigami to fight each other in an endless battle until their power are awakened. He doesn't want them to vanish before then, so the anti-shinigami weaponshold a high potential of ruining his "fun". Now enjoy your trip to hell, Guido. ＼(^o^)／

Before opening his eyes, Gloria sees a string of flashbacks through his dream. The first one is about the time he spent with Dalenzio and everyone. While he was satisfied with life and has no regrets, Gloria realized that his heart didn't lie within the family. Feeling empty inside, Gloria wonders if he's actually regretting his own decision inside. Next, he sees a vision of Nicholas and himself in the past. Gloria just decided to leave home back then, and Nicholas said it's nice that they don't have to see each other anymore. He always thought they never got a chance to get along, but now realized that he only ran away before Nicholas can accept him as a big brother. Soon Gloria wakes up from his dream, finding a sleeping Amelia by his bedside.

Three days have passed ever since the opera incident, but Nicholas' wounds aren't healing at all. Gloria feels terrible upon learning that he was the one who inflicted those wounds, and he keeps forcing himself to visit Nicholas in his room — ignoring his own injuries and fever. Upon seeing how Nicholas is still bedridden, Gloria apologized saying he'll look for a way to heal his wounds. He's going to look for a solution for Amelia too, since they can't let her continue living this kind of life for too long. When Gloria says he was probably summoned to eliminate danger and will return to hell in the end, Amelia asks if that's really the reason. She's only a naive kid compared to Gloria, but she thinks that's a very lonely reason. Sadly he couldn't find any other reasons to stay, so naturally he believes his role now is to kill Guido.

That night Gloria gets another fever, and Amelia takes care of him while Joshua goes to meet the priest. He wants to know if there's any way to heal a shinigami, and the priest introduces him to a suspicious-looking black magic maniac. (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ Both Gloria and Nicholas are thinking of giving up, but some days later Joshua makes some medicine for them. He says he can't guarantee the result considering the suspicious source, but fortunately Nicholas' injuries are healing properly after drinking the medicine. Amelia looks so happy as she thanks Joshua, and Gloria realized he never did anything to make her happy. He feels that most of the things he did only made her sad, which is why they need to put an end to everything soon.

However, Amelia tells him it's not true. She will be sad if Gloria disappears, and it's a different kind of sadness than the one he's thinking of. When she invites him to visit the park tomorrow, he agrees saying he can take the guilt — since it's the place where he killed Serbia. As soon as Amelia leaves the room with Gloria, Nicholas slowly opens his eyes and whispers "stupid aniki, he probably doesn't realize it.."

The next day, Amelia puts some flowers for Serbia in the park. Gloria also tells her that except for Dalenzio, everyone else were buried without a proper headstone. Most likely because the town is controlled by Guido and Lambert, and so they were treated like filthy criminals. Amelia then asks what could she do to make Gloria happy, but he can't give her an answer since he never really thought about it before. Compared to everyone else, Gloria's rather detached from almost everything other than the Salvatore Family.. and he feels "far" because of this. After a short silence, Amelia says she might know what can make Gloria happy — a date! ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ  
As she drags him to have a date in town, Gloria starts laughing since he never expected such an invitation coming from her.

After having a good time with Amelia all day, Gloria feels that he regained the emotions he lost a long time ago. He says he also has a request for her, but he'll save it until next time. Back at home, Nicholas asks Gloria if he's in love with Amelia. Even though Gloria doesn't realize it, the answer is written all over his face. Knowing that Gloria is probably planning to step back and watch over her from afar, Nicholas tells him to stop holding back already. All this time Gloria is always doing his best for him — both before he became a detective and after they both joined the family. Nicholas wants him to enjoy his own life and spend his own time, because despite all the things that happened between them.. they're brothers after all.

Meanwhile, Guido and Castro are welcomed by a familiar woman in hell. Guido recognized her as the woman he killed a long time ago — Keira, Amelia's mother. It's not the real Keira though, since apparently Jean is just trolling them with his transformation techniques LOL. He explains that they're in hell, and that's why they can see Luciano and Medicis chained in prison as the shinigami bound by the Nyx contracts. Guido wonders what happened to Gloria, but Jean tells him Gloria still has a lingering attachment to the human world.

Thanks to Joshua's medicine, Nicholas is recovering at a rapid state. Nicholas notices that his brother seems really close to Amelia recently, and he's not the only one who can see it. Just as they expected, soon Joshua asks Amelia if there's something going on between Gloria and her. Amelia says she only wants to please Gloria, which makes him go "p-'please'!? like what, for example!? Σ(〃д〃)ﾊｯ!" LOL JOSHUA. When Amelia says they're only dating, Joshua lets out a heavy sigh and leaves the room saying it's fine then. Poor man. xD Since she's curious about Gloria's request, eventually he admits he only wants to have a special date with her. It's not something unusual though, because the only special thing is Gloria's feeling.

For the special date, Gloria takes Amelia to the church where he died by Dalenzio's side. He's been thinking of accepting and getting over his death, but he couldn't bring himself to visit this place alone. When they see people preparing for a wedding in the church, Gloria says people forget about the incident quickly as the time goes by. Amelia says she won't ever forget them no matter how long time has passed, but Gloria says they will have to say goodbye someday. Shinigami are not a part of the human world, so they'll have to return to hell eventually. Gloria wants them to part with a smile, and that's why he's spending most of his time with her now. Obviously his words cause the opposite effect, since Amelia starts crying and says she can never part with him with a smile. Then she runs back home in tears.

Realizing that Amelia is in love with him, that evening Gloria visits her room and apologized for not realizing her feelings. He says her love is still at an early stage and it's not too late to turn back now, but Amelia tells him it's impossible. Gloria then confesses that he loves her as well, though he was planning to keep it a secret from her. It doesn't change the fact that they'll have to part someday, but Gloria doesn't want to regret anything. He wants to spend his remaining time with her. Amelia knows she will cry if he disappears, but she doesn't want their farewell to be a painful one either.

During dinner Amelia gets nervous around Gloria, who keeps grinning alone as he looks at her from the table. Everyone can tell that they're completely in love, so they drag Joshua to the bar before he can disturb them lol. Since Amelia can't cook properly in this condition, Gloria takes herto have dinner outside. On the way she asks which part of her does he like the most, and he says it's her cuteness. .｡ﾟ+.ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉﾟ+.ﾟ。. When Amelia asks him to give her an example, Gloria touches her lips and kisses her. Love doesn't need a reason, so whenever she wants to know why he loves her.. he'll keep her silent with a kiss.

When Nicole learns that Gloria is serious about his relationship wih Amelia, she cries because their love will be painful in the end. Nicole wants both of them to be happy, so she hands two luxury hotel vouchers to Gloria on December 23. Since they're going to have a Christmas party on the 24th, Nicole tells him to use those vouchers tonight — obviously expecting an "exciting" report later lol. At first Gloria is reluctant since this will be Amelia's first time, but eventually he decides to invite her because he doesn't want to regret anything. While Amelia has absolutely no experience in this area, she gets the idea when Gloria says they're going to stay in a hotel tonight. He asks if she's really okay with this, because he doesn't want to force her. If Amelia says yes, then Gloria's going to take her as his Christmas present.

As the answer, Amelia holds Gloria's hand and asks him to guide her through the night. Since she gets nervous when they reach the hotel, Gloria helps her to relax.. by fooling her with a ghost story lol. Gloria then lies half-naked! on the bed and asks Amelia to come to him, saying "Take my hand and come here. If you don't, they I'll go over there." until she finally climbs onto the bed with him. (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ He says she's really cute when she's embarrassed, whispering "I love you" as the screen fades to black.

Back in hell, Guido has just realized that Jean is actually "the whisperer" he's been looking for. Jean doesn't care about his opinion though, since he's now busy preparing for the final battle. He releases Guido and his shinigami, ready to send them back to the human world. Guido asks what will he get by throwing the shinigami in a battle against each other, but he says he won't get anything. Unlike human who calculates all the benefits and losses before doing something, Jean only wants to have fun. That's all.

The next morning, Nicholas and Nicole are surprised to find Gloria sitting in the dining room. He says they decided to return early since Amelia wants to make breakfast for everyone, though they probably won't wake up before noon — thanks to Joshua and his high alcohol tolerance. When they ask how did it go last night, Gloria says Amelia cries after they did it. She doesn't want to cry when it's time for them to say goodbye, so she's pouring out all of her tears last night. After breakfast, Gloria takes Amelia out to buy her Christmas present. She tells him she wants something that will never disappear, and she waits outside as he chooses a present for her. Just then Jean appears and tells Amelia that the final battle will begin tonight. The fight will continue until daybreak comes, and all shinigami will disappear by then. It's their limit.

Since Jean has ruined their Christmas party plan, Gloria tries to cheer Amelia up by giving her the present he bought earlier: a watch. He feels that it's a perfect present for them. Even after their time together comes to an end, the watch will continue moving. When Gloria says Amelia will probably forget about her by the time the watch stops working, she cries saying she will never forget him. Gloria then admits he doesn't want to disappear and leave Amelia's side, but both of them know that tomorrow will come. Whether they want it or not.

On Christmas Eve, Luciano and Medicis come to attack the mansion. Guido sends his order to Gloria as well, which eventually leads all six shinigami to the church where most of them died three years ago. They ask Joshua to escape with Amelia, but she follows them to witness the battle until the very end. While Luciano and Medicis are fighting against the others, Guido tries to command Gloria to attack Jean — who was watching in amusement. Of course Jean won't allow him to ruin his fun, so he shoots Guido dead and orders Gloria to join in the fight. Much to Jean's delight, everyone awakens all of their shinigami power during the battle. Luciano and Medicis are sent back to hell, while Nicholas's power only releases Gloria from Jean's order. For a moment Gloria looks around and asks about Guido, but Jean calmly tells him "dead" lol.

Sadly they can't stop time from moving on. Morning comes right after their battle, and everyone says goodbye to Amelia as they disappear one by one. Everyone, except for Gloria. Jean tells him he doesn't know the reason either, but Gloria probably can't return to hell because he has an incredibly strong attachment to the human world. Unlike the others, the chain tying Gloria's soul to hell actually broke quite a while ago. Now Gloria doesn't have a limit anymore, and Jean goes back to hell saying "enjoy your infinite time in this world!"

While Gloria is confused and unsure, Amelia feels happy that she can stay with him forever. Joshua doesn't mind either, as long as Gloria is ready to accept the fact that they're mortals. Someday Amelia will die as a normal human, while Gloria remains eternally alive. As they walk out of the church, Gloria finally tells Joshua that he's prepared to live with Amelia. He's going to use his shinigami power when the time comes. A few years later, Amelia and Gloria have their wedding ceremony in the church where she grew up. She's surprised to see him coming with a short hair, and he says he's been planning to cut his hair on their wedding day. Gloria then asks if she has any regrets, and Amelia tells him she doesn't.

Time passed with Gloria enjoying his married life with Amelia. One day she goes to repair her watch in town, and Jean appears to greet him in the streets. Jean asks if he's bored yet, but Gloria says he's enjoying every second of this eternal life. Again, Jean tells him to enjoy this immortality and disappears a few minutes before Amelia returns. She notices that Gloria looks lonely and asks if he's okay, but Gloria only laughs before whispering "as long as I can spend time with you, I'll repeat it as much as possible." Then he asks Amelia to close her eyes and uses his shinigami power — turning back the time to that Christmas morning a few years ago. The day when everyone returned to hell. As he tells Joshua that he'll use his power when the time comes, Gloria adds "I've already used it though.."

In the special event, Gloria and Amelia visit the church on the day before their wedding day. It might not be a place to pray for someone in hell, but Amelia hopes her prayer can reach their friends up there. At night she finds Gloria sitting by their bedside, and she asks if he has any regrets. When she says it'd be nice if he can find his reason to stay in this world, Gloria says he already found that reason. He promises to let her know after their wedding tomorrow, but she replies with "it's strange, I feel that you won't tell me tomorrow.. like a deja-vu" (´・ω・`A；) Amelia asks if he will really tell her the reason, going back to sleep when Gloria says he will.

One day, Joshua invites Gloria to have lunch together. Joshua asks about Gloria's power, and Gloria tells him this is the fifth time he turned back the time. For a certain reason Gloria always used it a few years after their marriage, but despite him going through the same events over and over again.. this is actually the first time Gloria talks to Joshua about this. Even though he tells them he's having fun with his eternal life, both Joshua and Amelia aren't sure if he's really happy with this. Especially Amelia, who notices that sometimes Gloria looks really sad. From time to time Gloria also visits Serbia's ghost in the park, though it might only be an illusion made by his own mind. The reason is because he needs someone to bring him back to reality, since his head starts to get a bit blurry as he keeps turning back the time.

Since the police keep coming back to investigate Dalenzio's mansion, Gloria currently lives in a hotel. As they walk back from the graveyard, Amelia says they share a lot of memories with everyone in that mansion. Even after they returned to hell, those memories will always remain. Soon Amelia notices that her watch stopped working, and Gloria is surprised since it's still too early for that to happen. When she runs off to fix her watch in a shop, Jean appears to ask if Gloria has found the answer. It turns out that the events are different this time because Jean is messing up with the time flow — just to entertain both Gloria and himself. Now Gloria won't be able to predict the future anymore, so it should be "fun".

When Amelia comes back, Gloria hugs her saying he's been turning back the time because he doesn't want to lose her.. and it's his reason for staying in this world. Not too long after she fixes her watch, Amelia is supposed to die in an accident. That's why Gloria keeps rewinding the time after the watch stopped working. Amelia is confused since she doesn't know about his power, but Gloria then asks her to close her eyes and turns back the time again. Throwing them back to that Christmas for the sixth time. Realizing that he's been using the power for his own sake, Gloria decides to tell Amelia the truth. He doesn't want to deceive her anymore, so he finally takes the watch and destroys it — opening the path towards a new time.

Gloria then asks Amelia to accept his everything, and Amelia says she will.. but first, he needs to explain everything since she's still confused about what really happened. When Gloria asks if she loves him even after hearing all of this, Amelia says she will always love him no matter what happens. Some years later, Amelia and Gloria get married for the sixth time in front of Joshua. The only difference is that Gloria doesn't cut his hair, and he hugs his bride as soon as he enters the church — ignoring Joshua in the background lol. They don't know what will happen in the future. Amelia might or might not survive the accident, but Gloria promises that he won't use his power anymore. Even if death comes to pick her up again, he will continue living with her memories in his heart.


	2. Chapter 2 Jean

Death Connection – Jean

Jean is a mysterious man who keeps appearing and vanishing as he likes. He warned Joshua to keep Amelia hidden inside during the incident three years ago, and he's the one who guides them towards Dalenzio's mansion. Nobody knows where Jean actually came from, since he's already there when they joined the Salvatore Family. His objective remains a mystery until the very end, because he's not an ally nor an enemy. He just wants to "have fun".

This route starts with Jean, or rather the almighty ruler of hell, taking the body of a man named Jean Buttini — an interesting man who didn't live long enough to entertain him. Since Jean has a new vessel now, his schedule is empty until someone else makes a new contract with him. After erasing a pair of evil, bored souls who were planning to kill humans, Jean decides to go down and "play" in the human world below.

At the same time, a young Dalenzio has just moved into his new "castle" — the mansion which is later known as the Salvatore Family house. His parents died in an accident, and he used up all of his share of inheritance to build the mansion. Dalenzio then invited Guido to live with him, and Guido agreed since his older brother will probably crumble financially without his support. Since Dalenzio couldn't imagine working under other people, Guido then suggested building his own business or mafia family to make a living. Of course it was only a joke, but Dalenzio likes the idea and starts building the Salvatore Family with Guido.

Following Guido's plan, Dalenzio joined another mafia family and took over the leadership by killing the boss. Even though Guido was the brain behind their success, Guido didn't have any desire to take the boss seat for himself. A boss needs a great presence and charisma, and he knew Dalenzio fits the role much better than he does. Back then Dalenzio was 32 and Guido was 26, and they were doing great in running the new family together. Dalenzio noticed that Guido has a nice stock of women surrounding him, but Guido wasn't interested in marriage at all. His highest priority was the family, women are just for fun.

One day, Dalenzio bumped into a law college student named Keira in town. She dropped a bag of cookies and he accidentally stepped on them, crushing the contents into crumbs. When she said she baked them for the man she likes, Dalenzio picked them up, took a bite, and said they taste nasty lol. After they introduced themselves to each other, Dalenzio told Keira that unlike women, men appreciate direct words instead of gifts. They later met again in a boutique, and Dalenzio bought a dress for Keira to seduce the man she likes.. but Keira told him she already gave up on her unrequited love. Keira wasn't scared even after learning about Dalenzio's job as a mafia boss, and Dalenzio found her interesting.

Eventually Dalenzio asked Keira to go out with him, and Keira agreed to try dating him for one week to get to know each other first. Keira moved into the mansion for this trial dating period, and Dalenzio proposed to her on the last day. Both of them have fallen in love during that one week, and they got married the following year — right after Keira graduated from college. Not too long after their honeymoon, Keira got pregnant and Dalenzio became a happy father when Amelia was born. It was around then when Dalenzio met Jean for the first time, but Jean left saying it's still too early to make a contract with him.

However, Keira knew that their happy time won't last for a long time. Guido wasn't happy with Dalenzio's blissful married life, because he's starting to put his wife and daughter above their mafia family. The Salvatore Family was growing larger and it was getting harder for Guido to handle everything alone, so he asked Dalenzio to recruit some trustworthy executives to help running the family.. and this request remained ignored for a year because Dalenzio was busy with Keira. Some of their men were starting to lose faith in Dalenzio as their boss, and Keira's plan to start a normal life with Dalenzio and Amelia only annoyed Guido even more. One night, Guido threatened Keira to leave the mansion with baby Amelia. If she refused or reported this to Dalenzio, Guido will kill both of them.

In order to protect Amelia's life, Keira lied to Dalenzio saying she wants to raise their baby in a normal environment. She forced him to understand, and the heartbroken Dalenzio told Keira to get out and never return. Sadly Guido's plan didn't end there, because he was planning to kill them anyway. This leads to the prologue of the game, where Keira took baby Amelia into the church and asked the sister to raise her daughter. She got shot by Guido's men as she was running towards the church, and after saying goodbye to Amelia, Keira died in Guido's hands. The next morning, the police found Keira's body floating in the river. Dalenzio was devastated upon hearing about her death, but Jean finally appeared to work with him — interested in the burning flames of hatred in Dalenzio's eyes.

With Jean's help, Dalenzio realized that the culprit was none other than his own brother. Guido admitted to the crime when Dalenzio asked him about this, but he didn't care since they didn't need Keira and Amelia in the family. When Guido said he can always "buy" another woman to replace Keira, Dalenzio took out his gun and tried to kill him instead. This caused Guido to feel betrayed, and he left the Salvatore Family to kill Irene (their younger sister) and took over her mafia family — Tarantino. Jean was drawn by Dalenzio's strong hatred towards Guido, and that's when they made the contract. It was from Jean too that Dalenzio learned about Amelia, so he recruited six subordinates and prepared the Erebos ring for his daughter's safety.

The first one to join Dalenzio was Leonardo, Irene's son. Dalenzio was the reason Guido killed Leo's parents, and he took the boy in because he felt responsible. Some years later, Dalenzio bumped into a drunk Medicis in front of the bar. When Dalenzio told him "your eyes are dead", Medicis instantly snapped back to his senses and decided to follow Dalenzio. The next one to join was Gloria, and Dalenzio recruited Serbia not too long before Gloria brought Nicholas into the family. Soon he noticed Luciano and Vicious, already working as paid hitmen at the time, in the streets, and he sent Serbia to recruit them as well. Luciano joined on the spot, and Vicious followed him two years later.

Dalenzio made contracts with them through the Nyx stones, just in case Guido finds Amelia in the future. Even though he did that to protect Amelia, Dalenzio treasured his subordinates like a real family. He was hoping they won't die and turn into shinigami.. but sadly that wish was crushed by Serbia and Luciano's betrayal. Just before he died in the church incident, Dalenzio whispered an apology — both for his men and for Amelia.

Three years after Dalenzio's death, Guido finally finds Amelia's location. He sends his men to attack the church at night, and this time Jean wipes them out to save both Amelia and Joshua. It's a promise he made to Dalenzio, who asked Jean to protect Amelia and gave his own soul in return. Since Joshua keeps resisting, Jean paralyzes him inside the church before warping Amelia outside. He takes her to Dalenzio's abandoned mansion, where he explains everything she needs to know about her parents. Of course Amelia is shocked to hear that her parents are no longer alive, but Jean tells her Dalenzio was an "interesting" man. Jean then gives her the Erebos pendant Dalenzio created with his soul, and he tells her to stay in the mansion from now on. He's going to stay too and keep her company. Just because he's bored.

That's right. Instead of staying with Joshua and her shinigami, Amelia now has a godly troll to protect her in the mansion! ＼(^o^)／ Amelia feels nostalgic upon entering her room, and Jean says it used to be Keira's room in the past. After her death, Dalenzio left the room untouched. Jean also tells Amelia that she has Keira's hair color, but her face is more similar to Dalenzio's when he was young. Maybe. He can't remember precisely lol. After Amelia falls asleep, Jean sits by her bedside saying she grew up in the blink of an eye. He then wonders what kind of entertainment will she bring from now on. A deep hatred like her father? Or something else?

Since Amelia needs food to survive, Jean then goes to grab some money for her. Fresh from the bank. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ Despite Jean's warning to stay away from the church, the next day Amelia goes back there to inform Joshua and the priest about her situation. Obviously she gets attacked by Guido's men on the way, but luckily Jean appears to save her again.. though he looks really bored and asks if it's necessary to keep her on a leash. (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ Jean keeps saying that he's only doing this for "fun" and won't always come to protect her, but he actually ditched the book he was reading just to save her earlier. He also sets out a bunch of rules for her, but when Amelia gets angry and runs away, Jean goes to pick her up from the streets at night. Just because.

Despite the rocky start, soon Amelia gets used to living with Jean. He also noticed that Amelia resembles Dalenzio a lot — they're both "weird" lol. As he explains the pendant's origins, Jean tells Amelia that he actually came from hell. He borrowed a vessel to stay in the human world, but his current body is reaching its limits and Jean will have to change into a new body soon. He's willing to show his real form if she wants to see, but Amelia refuses thinking a demon is going to come out LOL. After lunch, Jean takes Amelia to Dalenzio's secret study and explains that she can call shinigami with her pendant. She doesn't want to revive them since she's got Jean already, but she needs to prevent Guido from summoning them as well.

After spending the whole day thinking about this, Amelia decides to steal Guido's Erebos. She tells Jean about her plan, but he only tells her "good luck" and laughs when Amelia leaves with a surprised look on her face. (*ﾉ∀｀)ﾟo｡ｱﾋｬｬ ..and you know what, Amelia really goes to visit Guido directly in the Tarantino Family mansion. Σ(ﾟдﾟ ；) Of course Guido won't listen to her, but Amelia suddenly disappears when he shoots her. Jean has warped her outside, saying she's really a fool with no common sense. He can't blame Amelia for being so dumb though, knowing the peaceful church was her only world for 17 years. Before going home, Jean gives Amelia a ring and tells her not to lose it. So in addition of being trolled, poor Guido also lost the ring lol.

The next day, Amelia gets curious and asks Jean about his age. He says he doesn't know, but he does know that he was born in darkness. He made a body to get out of that darkness, and he created a new world because staying in the dark forever is boring. Even though Jean is a godly troll being, Amelia can only see him as a kind person. He keeps saying that he saved her just for "fun", but it doesn't change the fact that he saved her life. That night, Jean transforms into Dalenzio and goes to see Amelia in her room. He thought she would be happy to see her father — even though it's not the real thing — but Amelia starts crying instead. Of course Jean doesn't know the reason since he's completely clueless about human emotions, but he's more surprised at the fact that he tried to make Amelia happy.

When Amelia later goes downstairs to apologize, she's shocked to find Jean looking sick in the living room. He explains that sometimes his vessel would show resistance, but the pain will go away after a while. That, and because it's about time for him to move into a new body. Amelia helps wiping off his cold sweat, and soon enough Jean tells her the pain is gone. Since he's still confused about his own feelings, Jean then adds a new rule into the list: whenever she cries, she should explain the meaning behind her tears. Amelia agrees on the condition that he won't ever transform into Dalenzio again, and Jean says he understands.

However, Jean then reveals that he's going back to hell on All Souls' Day. He needs to change vessels back in hell, and since the gate will be open that day.. it means less work for him. He doesn't know how long it's gonna take to change bodies, so he wants Amelia to summon her shinigami after he's gone. Amelia tries to say that she's going to be lonely without Jean, but he doesn't change his plans.. until Guido comes to open the gate with Amelia's blood. The moment Guido orders his men to kill Amelia, Jean shields her from their bullets and sends all of them to an unknown place. ＼(^o^)／ When Amelia cries and tells him she feels sad to say goodbye, Jean finally changes his mind and decides to stay with her for a little longer.

Some days later, Joshua finally finds Amelia walking with Jean in town. He goes into his usual rage of jealousy, but Jean says Joshua won't be able to protect Amelia alone. Amelia explains that Jean has been protecting her all this time, so Joshua gives up saying she should return to the church if anything happens. Jean only watches in silence as they say goodbye for today, and he remains distracted even after returning to the mansion. Everything will be over if Jean kills Guido, which is an easy task for him, but for some reason he keeps stalling time. He also feels strange upon seeing Amelia talking to Joshua earlier, and he eventually realized that it's actually called "jealousy" — thanks to Serbia's love advice lol.

When Jean returns to the mansion at night, he finds Amelia sleeping near the front door. Since she won't wake up, Jean carries Amelia back to her room and stays with her until she wakes up in the morning. (*´∀`*) Later on Jean asks if Amelia ever felt jealous before, and when she answers "I want to be fashionable, walk around town, or have a date with my boyfriend"; he takes her out to do some shopping in town. Of course Amelia's confused since it's so sudden, and Jean doesn't understand why he's doing this either lol. That evening Jean asks what she thinks of him, and he turns silent when Amelia answers he has a fatherly image.

Before he can sort out his feelings, Jean decides to return to hell after all. His vessel won't be able to take it any further, and he needs to change it as soon as possible. He wastes no time and disappears right after saying goodbye, leaving Amelia to cry all alone in the mansion. Back in hell, fragments of Dalenzio's spirit tells Jean not to make a decision he's going to regret later. He knows Amelia has become an important person for Jean, and he wants Jean to realize his own feelings. Thanks to Dalenzio's words, Jean finally returns a few days later to pick Amelia up in the church. He doesn't know how much longer his vessel can endure it, but Jean admits he came back because he wants to see Amelia again.

On December 24, Amelia and Jean hold a Christmas party just for the two of them. At first he's not too interested to exchange presents, but he finally gives in since Amelia goes "… (´・ω・`)" when he dismissed the idea lol. After eating their Christmas dinner, Jean hands the present he bought for Amelia. He didn't know what kind of gift would make her happy, so he watched the person standing in front of him and picked the same thing — a doormat. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ In return, Amelia gives Jean a letter and tells him to read it after he returns to hell. Amelia knows Jean will probably say goodbye without giving her a chance to say anything, so she decided to write everything down in the letter.

Late at night, Jean can sense a movement from Guido and his men. He tells Amelia to keep the pendant and ring with her the next day, since his vessel is starting to break down. It's getting hard for Jean to move his arms properly because of this, so Amelia might have to summon her shinigami later. At noon Guido brings like ALL of his men to attack Dalenzio's mansion, and this time Castro made weapons that can actually hurt Jean as well. Σ(ﾟдﾟ ；) Jean knows he won't be able to handle this alone and tells Amelia to use the two Erebos, but instead of summoning her shinigami, she jumps in to protect Jean and got shot by Guido. This enraged Jean so much he summons the six shinigami to wipe the floor with Guido and his entire family, while Amelia is dying on the cold ground.

As much as he wants to save Amelia's life, Jean couldn't do anything because she's going up to heaven.. and that's not his territory. She won't be able to meet Dalenzio, but Keira should be there for her in heaven. Before Amelia dies, Jean asks her to reincarnate and come to see him again. This isn't a request nor a rule — it's an order. Until then, Jean will always be waiting for her. It might take decades or maybe centuries, but Jean will find her again someday.

..and up there in hell, Guido is reunited with Dalenzio. Their souls are going to disappear soon, but they finally make up as they reminisce about their past. Guido says time they spent building the family together was the most enjoyable part of his life, and he apologized for killing Amelia.

A long time passed ever since that day, and Amelia eventually reincarnates to be a normal girl with a part-time job. One day she bumps into Jean on the streets, and when he learns that her name is still Amelia, Jean realized that Amelia wanted him to find her again. (´；ω；`) Obviously the current Amelia is confused since she doesn't recognize Jean and the shinigami, but Jean tells her it's alright. Even if she doesn't have any memories, they can start from the beginning again. Then he asks her to take his hand, and she comes along with him. Her memories might be gone, but she still feels calm and nostalgic beside him.

Since he has found Amelia again, Jean realized he probably should read the letter she wrote for him back then. He was planning to read it when he goes back to hell, but it's still unopened since he's been staying in the human world looking for her. The moment Jean reads the letter, his tears are falling down and Amelia gives him her handkerchief.. but since he refuses to use it saying he's not crying, Amelia then wipes the tears off his face.

Amelia becomes the new boss after that, and the shinigami are living in Dalenzio's old mansion along with Jean. The current Amelia's personality is rather strong compared to how she used to be, since she forces Jean to explain everything until she understands. Jean still denies that he's in love with her, but Amelia also says she's not in love with him.. yet. She wants to know more about him for now, and she doesn't mind the HUGE age gap between them — which is probably higher than three digits. (*ﾉ∀｀)ﾟo｡ｱﾋｬｬ There's only one thing he wants her to keep in mind: he's not looking at her as a replacement. She's not the same Amelia, and Jean doesn't see her as a replacement. Amelia laughs upon hearing this, saying she feels relieved.

Before Amelia goes home, Jean takes her to the mansion for a Christmas party with everyone. At first she feels scared and nervous around them, but it doesn't take long until she gets along with everyone. They're interested in Amelia's relationship with Jean too, and they keep teasing him until he tells them to stop and start the party already lol. Since Amelia didn't seem pleased with his doormat a long time ago, this year Jean has a different present for the current Amelia — a bath rug. (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ He also brings a suspicious bottled liquor which turns out to be a gender-swapping potion, and tonight's victims are Vicious, Leo and Nicole LOL.

While everyone are panicking in the background, Jean tells Amelia that he needs to change his vessel soon. He was planning to do this from a long time ago, but he's been pushing it aside to find Amelia first. Now that she's already here by his side, it's a good time for him to move into a new body. It's going to take some time, so he wants her to wait and look forward to see the new him. However, a few days later Jean returns in the same body. He has grown attached to his current body, and he knows Amelia probably doesn't want him to change. He spent the last few days repairing this vessel, so he can keep using it for a little longer. Amelia is happy that he's thinking about her, and she tells him she might fall in love with him.

Behind them, the other guys are whispering that Jean and Amelia are dating after all. Medicis says Jean just doesn't realize that he's in love, but Gloria believes Jean will realize soon. As long as he's got Amelia by his side.


	3. Chapter 3 Joshua

Death Connection – Joshua

Joshua is a 22 years old priest who grew up with Amelia in the church. His family were killed by some mafia when he was small, and he's been holding a deep hatred for all kinds of mafia ever since. Joshua is just like a big brother for Amelia, protecting her from all the harmful and unnecessary stuff. This includes chasing off all the guys who tried to approach her, banning her from dating, as well as giving her absolutely zero sex education.

Naturally, Joshua is against the idea of Amelia living in a mafia mansion with her shinigami. He keeps picking fights with them at first, especially with Vicious, but Joshua soon realized that they don't have any choice. He still wants to protect Amelia even though he's not immortal, so he starts reading all the magic books in Dalenzio's study. Knowing that he might have to kill to protect her, Joshua gives up his duty as a priest and starts practicing how to fight instead. He was shocked upon learning that Amelia is the daughter of a mafia boss, but that didn't change his affection for her at all.

On Halloween, Guido sent a letter for Amelia. He challenges her to come to Dalenzio's grave on November 2 — All Souls' Day. Medicis thinks Guido wants to accomplish something other than killing Amelia, so he suggests they split up into two groups. Luciano, Gloria and him are going to Guido's mansion, while the others are guiding Amelia to the graveyard. However, this plan backfired when they find out that Guido was the one who summoned them. He doesn't bother explaining anything, and instead he orders them to kill everyone in the graveyard. Their summoner's order brainwashes them immediately, which eventually results in a ferocious fight with their friends.

During the fight, Guido mentions that while he killed Dalenzio out of pure hatred, it's different for Amelia. He needs "Beatrice's blood" from Amelia to open hell's gate and retrieve something inside. Joshua tries to use his magic to protect Amelia from Gloria and Medicis, but the fight eventually ends when Jean appears and knocks all the shinigami out with a strange power. Guido flees, while Amelia and Joshua take everyone back to their mansion. While Vicious, Leo and Nicole remembered hearing Amelia's subconscious order to "protect her"; Luciano, Gloria and Medicis don't have any memories about what happened after receiving Guido's order.

While everyone decides to continue living together, Joshua and Vicious know they have to do something about the situation. Just in case Guido's command brainwashes them again, Joshua then starts looking for a method to inflict damage to shinigami. Amelia feels upset because she doesn't want him to kill anyone, and they end up having a fight because Joshua is doing all of this just to protect her. Noticing that Joshua is gone from the mansion at night, Amelia and Leo go out to search for him in town. Just as Leo expected, they find him drinking his heart's out in a bar, trying to erase all the irritation from his head.

When Amelia drags him out of the bar and gives him a long lecture about how priests shouldn't drink, Joshua snaps saying he just wants to be alone. Amelia says he has changed, while in Joshua's eyes she's the one who changed after meeting her shinigami. They almost got into a fight in the middle of the street, so Leo stops them saying it's because both Amelia and Joshua are changing. They won't be able to solve anything by pushing their opinions onto each other, and it would be better if they take some time to get used to this change. Leo then tells them to have a talk in a quiet place nearby, and he'll guard them until they're done.

Ignoring Leo's words, Amelia keeps saying that this isn't like Joshua at all. In her eyes, Joshua is a reliable older brother who's been guiding her all her life. After hearing her opinion of him, Joshua lets out a bitter laugh and says he never changed. He's just jealous. Amelia only had him before, but now she's suddenly surrounded by a lot of guys. Sadly while Joshua admits he's afraid they will take her away, Amelia only replies with "you're drunk and strange today." When Amelia asks him not to keep any secrets, Joshua says he only has one thing he's hiding from her.. and he won't tell her no matter what, because nothing can be done even if he does. Amelia calls him stingy and mean, but they make up after that.

The next morning, Joshua packs his belongings and leaves the mansion alone. Amelia and Leo go to the church looking for him, and they meet the priest on the way. Just like Leo, the priest believes that Joshua will come back for Amelia eventually. A few years ago, Joshua's former schoolmate visited the church to confess to him, but he rejected her right away saying he's in love with someone else. Leo also adds that Joshua won't be able to live without Amelia, but she thinks it's because Joshua wants to continue taking care of her.

That night, Serbia comes to inform them that she met Joshua today. He said he doesn't want to be a hindrance for Amelia, and it seems like he's staying in an inn behind the mall. Amelia goes to fetch him while Leo guards the area outside, obviously because he doesn't want to disturb them. The moment Joshua opens the door, Amelia rages at him for leaving without a word. He explains it's because he feels Amelia doesn't need him anymore. She needs him as a brother, but he's not looking at her as a sister — something he confirmed after they start living with her shinigami. His jealousy is taking over his mind, so he leaves the mansion to cool his head off. Joshua then confesses that he's in love with Amelia. He won't ask her to accept his feelings, but he would be happy if she can start looking at him as a man from now on.

Sadly, Amelia's answer is "it's impossible!" (╯ ಠ益ಠ ）╯︵ ┻━┻ Since she keeps insisting, Joshua hugs her saying it's okay if she can only look at him as a brother for now. His feelings for her won't change, and he wants her to keep that in mind. He'll do anything she wants him to do, so she should tell him her wishes from now on. But for now, Amelia only wants Joshua to return to the mansion. Joshua also gets jealous when Leo tells him not to hurt Amelia, but Leo calmly says people's emotions can't be divided into "love" and "hate" only. He was called by Amelia, and he just wants to do what he needs to do.

Despite saying this, the next day Leo asks Joshua about his confession in front of everyone. Joshua doesn't bother hiding this — much to everyone's amusement — but he's curious why Leo keeps telling him not to make Amelia cry. Some of them think that Leo might be a rival for Joshua, though the idea seems unlikely. Since Amelia wants him to act as usual, Joshua asks her to stop being so awkward around him as well.. even though he's happy that she becomes more aware of him now.

Meanwhile, Guido is having a discussion with his doctor, Castro. The gate to hell can only be opened on All Souls' Day, but Guido orders him to look for another way. There's no way he's going to wait another year to accomplish his plan. They also reveal that Dalenzio used to own a ring containing Erebos — a legendary powerful stone which can be obtained upon making a contract with a shinigami, and can be used to call them after their death. Guido stole this ring by tricking Luciano before the accident, though he failed to summon all six shinigami thanks to Amelia. However, Castro points out that Dalenzio actually has seven subordinates. The last one wasn't called by Guido nor Amelia, and he even interrupted their fight last time — Jean.

Thinking Jean might be a familiar Dalenzio ordered to protect his daughter, Guido then decides to lure him out by kidnapping Amelia. All he needs to do is to send a command to his shinigami.

Some days later, Amelia goes out with Leo to a flower field. Leo tells everyone it's a date, but Amelia keeps this a secret from Joshua knowing he'll only get jealous. When they return to the mansion that evening, they find him waiting in front of the door — obviously jealous and ready to interrogate them about the "date" LOL. It doesn't help that Leo keeps saying things like "we went to my memorable place, and I finally remember that Amelia is important to me" either. Leo makes it clear that he doesn't have any intentions to spark rivalry between them though. He's going to do what he needs to do, so Joshua should do the same.

Knowing Joshua is still curious, Amelia finally tells him that Leo made a promise to Dalenzio in the past. In return of raising Leo as his own son, Dalenzio asked him to protect his daughter. Since Joshua's responses are rather cynical, Amelia tells him that Leo isn't a bad person. She asks if Joshua hates him because he's a mafia, but he admits it's because Leo's approaching her. However, Amelia then gets angry and goes "I'm not yours, Joshua!" (ノ`д´)ノ〃┻━┻ He's been doing this ever since they were small, so Amelia never had a boyfriend like normal girls around her age. After yelling "I wanted to experience romance too! I wanted a boyfriend too! Joshua, you idiot!", she leaves the room and slams the door behind her.

While everyone was talking about the Joshua – Leo rivalry at night, Guido suddenly sends his command. The fight ends when they suddenly stop moving, indicating that something happens to Guido on the other side, but Joshua got shot when he tried to protect Amelia. Obviously the doctor finds it weird that he got shot inside the house, though he keeps his mouth locked upon hearing the Salvatore Family name. Amelia feels really bad for his injuries, but Joshua says he doesn't mind dying if it means he can protect her.. just like how he protected her as they grew up together. Even if he's not immortal like her shinigami, he wants to stay by her side.

_(The reason why the attack suddenly stopped is because Jean appeared and put his gun on Guido's back, asking for Guido's reason for luring him out. Guido asks him how to obtain the power of "the whisperer", but Jean only tells him to "gather more hatred".)_

Since Joshua keeps calling her name, Amelia holds his hand until he's asleep. As he watches over them, Leo wonders why Joshua and him can be so different. Their parents are killed by mafia, but Joshua holds a grudge while Leo became one. After Amelia goes back to her room, Leo asks if Joshua is actually awake and listened to the whole conversation. Leo also thinks that hatred won't last for eternity like love, and Joshua asks if he actually likes Amelia too. Leo admits he does like Amelia, but he doesn't love her like Joshua does.

Even though Joshua recovers in a few days, Medicis feels really guilty for shooting him. They can't let this continue since Joshua's life would be in danger, and Gloria thinks it would be for the best if Joshua returns to the church. After all, Guido's target is Amelia and not him. Later on Amelia finds him in Dalenzio's study, searching for greater power to protect her. She says nothing, but Joshua can read her expression really well. He asks if Amelia wants him to return to the church, and he feels happy when she anwers no. Amelia apologized for getting angry at him for being so protective, but Joshua says he understands. He did that because he loves her, admitting that though he knows it's wrong, it's hard for him not to put restrictions on her.

To celebrate Joshua's recovery, everyone except Leo and Amelia are having a boys' night out in a bar. As they drink together, Gloria asks if Joshua has ever dated a girl before. He says he's not interested because he loves Amelia that much, and he returns the question to them. Well, what do you expect from a mafia group? xD While Vicious doesn't give a clear answer, Luciano dates randomly, Gloria treasures every "meeting", and Medicis depends on his feeling LOL. Joshua rages at them for not devoting themselves to one woman, so Gloria challenges him on a drinking match. If Gloria wins he'll get Amelia, but if Joshua wins they're not allowed to flirt with her anymore. It took five bottles of vodka before Gloria's eyes finally turn white as he passes out on the floor.. and the next day, Joshua shows up in the dining room with a big appetite while everyone else are having a hungover.

When he heard that Amelia is going out for lunch with Leo, Joshua tags along to disturb their date. This "date" eventually leads to Leo remembering how he died and who killed him, so he wants to settle this issue despite Joshua's sarcastic comments. It's their first time seeing Leo looking so angry, and Joshua gets jealous (again) because Amelia looks so concerned about Leo. He tells her mafia will always resort to violence in the end, and when Amelia tells him it's only because they don't understand Leo's situation.. Joshua pushes her against a wall asking why she's protecting Leo so much. He fulfills her request to act normal, but he's losing control thanks to his jealousy. When Joshua moves closer to kiss her, Amelia pushes him away and runs off saying he's an idiot.

One night, Claudia (Guido's woman) suddenly comes to the mansion. She delivers a bunch of opera invitations for everyone, which is obviously another trap laid by Guido. Leo's mind is full of his own issue though. Despite his burning jealousy, Joshua goes with Amelia to help Leo to solve the case without killing anyone — awakening Leo's shinigami power in the process, as well as opening Joshua's eyes that mafia aren't as heartless as he thought. When they return to the mansion, Joshua tells Medicis that Amelia and him won't be going to the opera. It would be dangerous if Guido suddenly orders them to attack her again, so they're staying at home.

A few days later, everyone except Joshua and Amelia goes to the theatre. Just as expected, Claudia and Guido trap them inside the building. At first they thought everything should be fine since they're invisible, but that's only until Guido ordered Castro to bring out weapons made to kill even shinigami. Then he commands his shinigami to take these weapons.. and kill the other three. At the same time, Jean visits the mansion to inform Amelia that everyone are going back to hell tonight except for one person. She rushes to the theater with Joshua, but just as Jean said, everyone already vanished by the time they arrived. The only survivor is Leo, because he's the only one who can fight back with his awakened power.

While Guido and Castro escapes right away, Claudia's actually still lurking around the theater. It doesn't help that Amelia's acting like an idiot and refuses to accept the truth, so while she's still busy going "嫌！嘘よ！" Claudia shows up with a gun and starts shooting wildly. Joshua got shot as he protects both Amelia and Leo, but he returns the attack by burning Claudia with his magic — until she dies along with the flames. As his consciousness slowly fades away, Joshua remembers a past memory of Amelia and him at school. Back then she was talking to a male classmate, who ran away when Joshua came to give him a nasty look. Amelia was mad because she lost yet another friend because of him, but Joshua didn't care as long as she's safe from any harmful insects.

Joshua later wakes up in his room and finds a worried Amelia by his side. When she goes to get some food for him, Joshua realized that he just killed a person for the very first time.. and he won't be able to turn back now. However, things take a turn for the worse when Claudia's ghost starts haunting Joshua. Her dream was to conquer the world just by smiling by Guido's side, and she can't accept her death so easily. At first Joshua tries to overcome his guilt and fear for Amelia's sake, but the darkness keeps eating up his mind as Claudia comes to torment him everyday. Even though Amelia doesn't blame him at all, Joshua thinks a pathetic murderer like him doesn't have any right to love her anymore.

Unlike Amelia's pure trust for Joshua, Leo can see that a part of Joshua actually wanted to kill Claudia. He was different from her shinigami because he never killed anyone, so he wanted to show that he can go that far just to protect Amelia. To help refreshing Joshua's mind, Amelia then takes him to a lobelia flower field she visited with Leo the other day. Sadly, Joshua isn't impressed at all. While Claudia only appears in his dream at first, lately she starts coming out at noon as well just to scream "murderer!" repeatedly into his ears. Disappointed in Joshua's answer, Amelia tells him to stop being pathetic. He killed Claudia on his own will, so get over it already. Joshua only replies with "you don't understand", and Amelia leaves in anger.

Both Amelia and Leo are hoping Joshua can resolve his own issue, but there's no way he can do that with Claudia still following him around all day. Amelia goes searching for him with Leo at night, but Joshua is in such a delusional state he doesn't recognize her at all. In a panic, he calls his blue flames and hurls it at her thinking she's Claudia's ghost.. and he only snaps back to his senses when Leo asks if he realized what he's done. Joshua can only stare in horror as Leo carries the wounded Amelia to see a doctor, while Amelia wonders what happened to the kind, protective Joshua she used to know.

When Amelia opens her eyes in the mansion, Joshua feels really guilty and apologized to her. Claudia is still haunting him, but she starts talking to him normally since Joshua has decided not to run away from his sin anymore. Joshua then does everything he can to nurse Amelia backto health, which includes cooking terrible dishes — much to Leo's horror LOL. Apparently the dishes he makes are just like an "insult to cooking", so Leo decides to help him in the kitchen. As he helps changing Amelia's bandage, Joshua says he can't bear living in a world without her by his side. It's fine even if she doesn't return his feelings, as long as he's allowed to stay with her. Joshua only wants Amelia to be happy, and his love won't change even if she falls in love with another man.

Knowing Amelia feels lonely now that everyone's gone, Joshua asks for Serbia's help. Amelia can't ask Nicole for relationship advice anymore, so he's hoping Serbia can fill in that role for her. After learning about Joshua's confession from Amelia, Serbia says it's impossible for him to give up on her. For now Amelia can only get used to this situation, or search for a trigger so she can look at him as a man. But since Amelia's as dumb as a brick, she chooses the former. ┐(´～`；)┌ Serbia also informs Joshua and Leo that Guido has been locking up in his mansion lately. It seems that Castro is doing a suspicious research, so they should be careful.

Amelia soon recovers and can start walking again, but here Leo points out something Joshua has been hiding from them — he can't fully raise his left arm. Claudia shot him twice that night, and one of the bullets must have affected the nerves on his arm. Amelia feels really guilty, but Joshua tells her it's not her fault. The wound is fully healed and it doesn't really affect his daily activities, so everything should be fine. She forces him to admit if he has other secrets, but he quickly says he's not hiding anything else from her. Amelia still wants to do something for him though, so that night she massages Joshua's arm saying she'll help with his rehabilitation.

When Joshua expresses his love for her again, Amelia says it'd be nice if she can return his feelings — though she doesn't understand what love feels like. She's still feeling complicated for now, but he's happy to hear her answer. However, that's not how Joshua really feels.

Since Claudia says she can't sense Guido's presence nearby, Joshua takes Amelia to visit the church some days later. Despite what he said to Amelia, Joshua confesses to the priest that he's actually reaching his limits. He wants Amelia to be happy, but the desire to make her his still lingers in Joshua's heart. It's getting hard for him to act normal in front of her, so he wants to find a solution. Noticing that both Joshua and Amelia need some time to rethink about their relationship, the priest tells him to put a distance between them for a while. They have always been together for a long time, so they might be able to realize some things by staying apart.

Following the priest's advice, Joshua asks Leo to take care of Amelia and leaves the mansion. While Amelia is surprised to hear his sudden decision, Leo completely understands. He hands some money to Joshua, as well as telling Amelia to leave the poor guy alone for now. Leo also tells her to think how her words and actions hurt Joshua, but Amelia only goes "hurt? by me?" ?(´・ω・`)? since she's clueless like that. While Leo triest his best to get this through her thick skull, Castro decides to give Guido the hatred he needs.. by blowing up Guido's mansion along with his men. Obviously Guido rages and shoots him dead, and that's when Jean appears to help him. Just because he's bored, and because he's the one who determined "the rules".

Later on, Jean also tells Leo that his limit is on December 25. He wants Leo to fight him before then with his real shinigami power, telling Leo to see him at the church on the night of the 24th.

A few days later, Joshua is going insane without Amelia. He chained his hotel door to prevent himself from running out to see her, but he's becomes so mentally exhausted. All he wants to do is just to disappear. Claudia gets tired of watching this, so she goes to the mansion to see Amelia. Something's trapping Claudia's ghost in this world, and she tells Amelia it's not entirely Joshua's fault — it's partly Amelia's fault too for being a slowpoke in love. When Amelia goes to tell Leo about this, he tells her to go see Joshua NOW and shoves her out of the door.

Amelia then rushes to Joshua's hotel, where she finds him drowning in depression even more than before. He stopped eating and sleeping properly, and he faints not too long after Amelia arrives. When Joshua wakes up later, Amelia tells him that she needs him by her side. She's still unsure about her feelings until Claudia goes "that's called love, stupid ( ಠ_ಠ )", and that's when Amelia _finally_ realized that she's in love with Joshua too. Claudia also realized that she only wanted to see happiness, so she disappears now that her wish has been fulfilled.

When Amelia tells Joshua that she loves him, he cries and pushes her onto the bed saying he can die happy now. Joshua replies to everything she says with "I love you" and admits he's not listening to her, but Amelia answers with "stupid.. but I love you too."

They return to the mansion in the morning and spend a lovely Christmas Eve with Leo, who says that he's going on a "date" tonight with a man he hates — which totally gives Joshua the wrong ideas LOL. After telling them to spend Christmas together, Leo leaves saying he might not be able to return anymore. He doesn't say what's going to happen, but he tells them about the location: the church where Dalenzio died. Amelia thinks he's going to attend the Christmas sermon, and Joshua is currently too happy to think. That night Leo fights Jean and impresses him by disarming his anti-shinigami gun, and both of them return to hell when the day changes.

The next morning, Amelia and Joshua visit the church looking for Leo. Unfortunately, they only find a broken Guido who's really pissed that Jean has gone missing. He lost everything just to gain "the whisperer"'s power from Jean, and now he's desperately searching for the guy — accusing Amelia of hiding him. Guido then starts attacking them with his gun, and even though Joshua tries to protect her, Amelia ends up getting shot in the stomach. Joshua is enraged and burns Guido to death, but Amelia's can't be saved after all — she dies holding Joshua's hand.

Since Joshua is injured as well, soon he dies too and joins Leo in hell. At first Joshua is pissed to see Guido approaching them from afar, but Leo says this might be a chance for him to see Amelia again. Guido obtained Erebos when he made a contract with Jean, and it should still be somewhere in the world of the living. Joshua can become a shinigami if he makes a contract with Guido by using a Nyx stone, which will allow him to see Amelia after she reincarnates. This is a bet since they don't know when Amelia will reincarnate.. or if she can find Guido's Erebos at all, but Joshua decides to take the chance.

A few years later, a stray orphan is walking through a back alley. She notices a ring sparkling on the ground, and she picks it up thinking she can buy food if she sells it. For some reason, she also feels that the ring will summon someone to accompany her in life. The moment she touches it, the ring starts shining and Joshua appears in front of her. Noticing that the little girl is holding Guido's Erebos ring in her hands, Joshua asks for her name.. and she tells him it's "Amelia". She wonders why Joshua starts crying, but she's happy when Joshua takes her to live with him from now on.

In the special event, 15 years have passed and Amelia has grown up into an adult. One day she informs Joshua that she passed her university entrance exam, and when Joshua asks if she wants a present, Amelia says she wants him. (*´∀`*) In her eyes Joshua is a savior who saved her from the streets, and she fell in love with him before she knew it. She notices that sometimes Joshua's looking at someone else's shadow in her, but he says he already stopped looking at her past self — now his eyes are set on the current Amelia. While Joshua believes guys should confess first, Amelia says he never confessed even if she waited for him. Now she wants to hear how he really feels, and Joshua finally answers "I love you". The final CG shows Joshua and Amelia kissing on their wedding day.

Meanwhile, their friends in hell are wondering if Joshua met Amelia properly. When Jean goes to visit the human world to search for a new body, Leo tags along because he wants to see how Joshua and Amelia are doing. He appears right after Joshua tells Amelia about everything she needs to know: shinigami, his contract with Guido, and Amelia's previous life. They're happily married now, so Amelia has the right to know everything. Joshua is surprised when Leo approaches them, and he greets the current Amelia with "nice to meet you, I'm Joshua's shinigami friend from hell"

When he learns that Amelia confessed to Joshua first, Leo smiles saying the current Amelia is so different from herself in the past. Amelia says her love for Joshua won't change even after hearing everything, and Leo is relieved to see Joshua loving the current Amelia as well. After Leo goes back to hell, Joshua says he will keep living as long as Amelia is alive. When it's time for death to do them part, he's going to join Leo again in hell — referring to Leo as his "friend". On their way home, Amelia asks Joshua to close his eyes and gives him a surprise kiss. She admits she just wants to see his troubled face, and he smiles saying she's got a nice hobby.


	4. Chapter 4 Leonardo

Death Connection – Leonardo

Leonardo, or Leo for short, is the youngest in the group. He was 16 when he died, though he seems to be more mature than he looks. Leo is a gourmet who loves delicious food and people who cooks them. Usually he's calm and composed, but he gets angry if someone serves him nasty dishes. Leo has quite a sharp tongue and often uses it to poke fun at his friends, and he also loves giving food-related nicknames to people. Like "tomato" for Vicious.

From the second run, it's revealed that Dalenzio actually turned his subordinates into shinigami to protect Amelia. He also prepared the Erebos ring hoping he can give it to her someday, but it was stolen and fell into Guido's hands. After his death, Dalenzio in hell was worried about his daughter's fate. Since Amelia needs a new Erebos in order to summon her shinigami, Dalenzio decided to make another one by giving his own soul to Jean — who put the stone in a pendant and dropped it in front of Amelia on purpose.

After Amelia and Joshua starts living with her shinigami, the first thing Leo noticed is that he has no reflections. When Amelia tells him about the stone disappearing from the pendant, Leo thinks the mansion is haunted and filled with magical stuff. The mansion gives him the creeps, but for some reason he also feels comfortable here. Something has been bothering Leo's mind the whole time, and soon he realized it's because Dalenzio was just like a father for him. Leo's parents were killed by Dalenzio when he was around 5, then Dalenzio took him in and raised him as his own son.

At first Dalenzio was against Leo joining the Salvatore Family, knowing it's a dangerous world for a young boy to step in. Since Leo still wanted to help the family, he learned how to create and repair weapons by himself. Eventually Dalenzio let him join the mafia group when he was 12, and everyone treated him as the heir of the family. Leo can relate to Amelia because of his past, but that's their only similarity. He feels more mature after the summoning, though he says it might be because Amelia is just like a 17 years old kid lol. Aside from crafting weapons, Leo is also a pro at cooking and loves creating things in general. When Amelia makes a cup of hot chocolate for him, Leo expresses his gratitude by kissing her cheek.

After Halloween, Joshua suddenly runs away to a hotel. He confesses to Amelia when she comes to pick him up, but it's troubling her since she only thinks of him as a brother. That night she asks if Leo has any experience in love before, and he says he does. It was fake though, since back then Leo was looking down on other people. He didn't know if he really loves the girl, so he quickly lost interest and broke up that way. That wasn't a pleasant experience, but still an experience nonetheless.

Some days later, Leo invites Amelia to visit a lobelia flower field together. Leo feels something important took place in the flower field before, and he wants to remember knowing it's related to her. Amelia agrees and they go on a "date" some days later, much to Joshua's dismay. The moment they step into the flower field, Leo instantly remembers that he made a promise with Dalenzio here. Not too long after Dalenzio killed Leo's parents, he took Leo to the flower field and asked if Leo wants to live under his care. He's free to get his revenge later, but Dalenzio has one condition — protect his daughter. He took Leo near the church several times, where they watched a young Amelia growing up with Joshua from afar. Leo accepted the deal, and he grew up in Dalenzio's mansion ever since.

However, Leo eventually forgot about the promise. He was still bitter about his parents' death, and as he tried to trouble Dalenzio by acting as selfish as he can.. Amelia was pushed into the very back of his mind. By the time he visited the flower field again, Leo couldn't remember their promise anymore. Back then Leo thought Dalenzio revealed his secret because he was a kid, but now he understands that Dalenzio wanted to build trust between them. Leo died without even remembering their promise, so now he knows the reason why he was summoned — to fulfill that promise by protecting Amelia.

As he pulls Amelia into his arms, Leo tells her that she's an important person for him. He won't forget his promise anymore, and he doesn't care what Joshua will say about this. It's his duty to protect her. Leo says it's different from how he protected her so far, but obviously Amelia doesn't understand what he means. When a jealous Joshua greets them back in the mansion, Leo tells him he's not interested in rivalry. He's going to do what he needs to do, and Joshua should do the same.. but if Joshua makes Amelia cry, that's going to be the end of him. While he knows Joshua is a good person, Leo is worried that his restrictions will make Amelia sad.

After Medicis shot Joshua under Guido's order, Leo helps Amelia taking care of Joshua in bed. He tells her that he got hurt a lot when he was small, and some of them were intentional since he wanted Dalenzio to worry. Leo can't remember anything prior to his parents' death, but that doesn't change the fact that they were killed by Dalenzio. His past is similar to Joshua's, so it amuses him how they end up being so different. Joshua holds a deep hatred towards mafia, while Leo became a mafia under the man who killed his parents. Later on Joshua wakes up and asks why he did that, and Leo answers it's because he had nowhere else to go. At first he hated Dalencio and wanted to get revenge, but hatred doesn't last forever — unlike love.

A few days later, everyone drags Joshua to get drunk in a bar. Amelia stays in the mansion with Leo, and he tells her about the first time he saw her. She was shopping with Joshua in town, while he watched her from afar with Dalenzio. Leo feels guilty for betraying Dalenzio's trust by forgetting about their promise, so he wants to start over from scratch. People can't go back in time and fix their past, but Leo doesn't want to have any regrets. Amelia then asks if there's a reason behind Leo's picky sense of taste, and Leo says he was born this way. He grew up eating Filippo's — a hotel chef employed by Dalenzio — cooking, which developed his sense of taste even further. This reminds Amelia of a restaurant in town, and she invites him to have lunch there tomorrow. Even though Nicole told them the food tastes terrible, Leo accepts the invitation since he wants to have a date with Amelia.

The next day, Joshua flips out when he heard about the date. He decides to disturb their date, so Leo and Amelia take him along to the restaurant. Just like what Nicole said, one bite of the appetizer is enough to set off Leo's nasty food rage. Despite Amelia and Joshua's attempt to calm him down, Leo orders the staff to bring the chef out.. but he's really surprised to see that the chef is none other than the chef he grew up with — Filippo. It was then when Leo finally remembers the cause of his death. Three years ago, Leo didn't join everyone to fight Guido in the church. He died alone, because Filippo killed him before the incident. Leo forces Filippo to spit out who ordered him to do such a thing, but he ends up leaving since Filippo is too scared to give a proper answer.

Outside, Leo reveals that Filippo laced his carbonara with poison. He can still remember how the poison slowly took his breath away, while Filippo only watched him with cold eyes until he died. Leo is aware that one of the reasons must be his harsh attitude, but he also knows that there must be someone else controlling Filippo from behind the screen. Now Leo is planning to get the truth out of Filippo, then he's going to kill him along with the mastermind. Even if Joshua throws sarcastic comments at him for being such a violent mafia, Leo feels he won't be able to move on if this case remains unsolved. When Amelia visits him at night, Leo tells her not to worry since he's going to keep his promise to protect her. Amelia doesn't know how it feels to die in pain and anger like Leo did, and he won't let her suffer through the same fate.

Obviously Filippo is really scared to see Leo again. That night he calls Claudia seeking for help, only to get a cold "he got summoned from hell, deal with it" as the reply. It turns out that Filippo murdered Leo because Guido and Claudia bribed him with money to open his own restaurant. Their deal is done and over with, so she couldn't care less even if Leo returns to get revenge. The next day, Amelia decides to visit the restaurant again with Joshua. She was hoping they can find a solution for Leo, but they learn that Filippo has closed down the restaurant instead. Undoubtedly out of fear. Amelia quickly informs Leo about this, and he apologized for scaring her with his revenge plan. It would be nice if they can solve things without killing, but since it's impossible, he's going to return the deed to Filippo.

After spending a few days gathering information, Medicis eventually tells everyone that Filippo might be staying inside the restaurant. They can't find him in his own house, so there's a high chance that he's currently living on the second floor of the building. Leo wastes no time and walks out to pay him a visit, with Amelia and Joshua chasing after him. Even though Filippo is scared to death, he admits that he hated Leo for always criticizing his cooking. Filippo wanted to cook whatever he wants to cook, but back then Leo complained a lot and kept telling him to make a better one. It was Filippo's wish to have his own restaurant, thinking it's natural since he's a first-class chef after all. In order to achieve that dream, he killed Leo without hesitation.

When Filippo calls him an "insane monster", Leo takes out his machine gun and starts shooting at him. At first Filippo is beyond terrified, but soon he realized that none of the bullets actually hit the target. As Leo screams in desperation, Filippo grows more and more arrogant knowing his life isn't in danger. He lets out an incredibly annoying laugh, which quickly spreads into a string of insults: "Why are you revived when you can't even kill? You can never do anything without Dalenzio anyway!" However, Filippo is surprised when Leo calmly asks if he's done with his insults. In the middle of his own desperation, Leo has awakened his shinigami power. Instead of killing him, Leo gave Filippo a more painful revenge — erasing his ability to cook.

That night, Amelia finds Leo crying in his room. He feels irritated that he can't kill Filippo despite his hatred and desire for revenge. Leo believes he was summoned to make Filippo pay with his life, and yet he the only thing he could do was to erase his cooking ability. Amelia hugs him from behind saying it's probably because deep inside, he doesn't want to kill Filippo. Maybe he has forgiven Filippo since long ago without even realizing it. Sadly Leo's heart is still filled with hatred and anger right now, so nothing Amelia says works. After a short silence, Amelia says she'll come back after he calms down and excuses herself. Even though he doesn't want to admit it, Leo knows that Amelia is right. Hatred isn't eternal after all.

At first Filippo is relieved to find himself still alive. He laughs saying Leo is just a kid who's too scared to kill people, but his joy only lasts until the next day. Filippo can't cook anymore, since he can't even hold his kitchen utensils properly. His cooking skill is already gone.

Accepting Guido's challenge, everyone except Joshua and Amelia goes to the opera theater a few days later. This leads to Guido and Claudia trapping them inside, forcing the shinigami to fight each other with Castro's anti-shinigami guns. The only survivor is Leo, who erases their fighting abilities with his shinigami power. He quickly takes one of Castro's guns to send them back to hell, so by the time Amelia and Joshua arrived, everyone already disappeared. Since our _smart_ Amelia has entered denial mode, both Leo and Joshua have to drag her out.. and that's when Claudia appears to ambush them. Before Joshua can burn her and get haunted, Leo uses his power to disarm Claudia, takes out his gun, and shoots her dead.

Amelia spends the next day crying her eyes out. Even though Leo says everyone only went back to where they belong, she keeps going "but we lived together! it's natural that I feel sad!" and cries some more. ( ಠ_ಠ ) Guido is still alive and Amelia's life is still in danger, but for now she's more interested in crying a river of tears in Nicole's room. When Leo wonders if killing Guido is really the end of their fight, Amelia asks him not to say such things since she doesn't want to lose him too. That night Leo bakes a cake to cheer her up, and thank GOD this helps pulling Amelia out of her gloomy mood. They have to think about what to do from now on, and she can't keep drowning in sorrow forever.

When Leo goes out to think in the flower field, Dalenzio suddenly appears before his eyes. He says that while regret can't change the past, there must be a meaning behind that regret. The moment Leo says he can't forgive himself — both for mistreating Filippo and for forgetting their promise — Dalenzio suddenly turns into Jean, who laughs saying Leo just saw an illusion. He tells Leo to think about why he was summoned, why he's the only one left, and keep dancing in his palms to entertain him. Then he disappears, leaving Leo in confusion. Despite what Leo said to Amelia before, he's not sure if protecting her is the only reason behind the summoning.

Even after returning to the mansion, Leo is still confused. He starts questioning himself, which eventually leads to this question: "What am I to you, Amelia?" She answers he's an important person to her, saying he's just confused since a lot of things happened during such a short time span. As he pins her against the wall, Leo tells Amelia that he wants to find out the truth. He says "maybe I'm in love", though he quickly adds it's a joke and leaves the nervous Amelia alone. Joshua isn't pleased with how things turn out though. During dinner, Joshua says Leo's going to disappear when his limit comes anyway. This results in Leo running outside saying he's going to kill Guido right now, because protecting Amelia is the only thing he's sure about.

..as much as I loved Joshua, I have to admit he's being a jerk during this scene.

Amelia finds Leo thinking alone outside the mansion. He asks her if she wants him to kill Guido, because she will be free and won't need his protection anymore. She tells him she only wants to stay with him, and she wonders if it's not enough reason for him to stay by her side. When she asks if he's only staying because of the promise with Dalenzio, Leo answers he wants to stay with her too. They end up taking a walk around town, where Leo admits that despite his past with the Salvatore Family, he actually wanted to become a doctor. He also tells her that while Joshua's wish is to keep Amelia all to himself, Leo only wants her to be free.

When they return to the mansion, Joshua bombards them with all sorts of questions — where did they go and what did they talk about. Knowing Amelia is getting tired of him, Leo tells him to keep his jealousy under control. Loving someone doesn't mean it's okay for you restrict them. Joshua says it's got nothing to do with Leo, but it sure does.. because he's in love with Amelia as well. Joshua is still waiting for Amelia to return his feelings, but Leo says Amelia's feelings for him won't change. Or rather, he won't let her feelings change. Later on, Leo visits Amelia in her room and tells her about this sudden rivalry declaration. Leo clearly says he can't give her to Joshua, but Amelia is just too dense to take the hint.

Starting from the next day, sparks of rivalry are flying off from Leo and Joshua. It's mostly just Leo calmly pissing Joshua off though LOL. Since Amelia is totally clueless, eventually Leo tells her that they're competing over the right to date her. Probably because Amelia is too dumb to choose her own boyfriend. She doesn't even notice when Leo says his love is still one-sided at the moment. ┐(´～`；)┌ When Leo goes shopping with Amelia, Joshua tries to close the gap by making lunch for her with his nonexistant cooking skills. He proudly says he doesn't make any for Leo, which is great since the his food is absolutely disgusting — both in appearance and taste.

Amelia then asks if she will understand what love feels like. She never experienced it before, and Leo doesn't really know how it feels either. However, Leo believes they will realize when love really comes into their hearts. If Amelia is in love with him, she will feel a different kind of sadness when he disappears. At the same time, Leo himself wouldn't want to leave her if his feelings for her are real. It would be too late by then though, so Leo is hoping they can realize their feelings before he reaches the limit. Amelia also asks Serbia for some love advice, but she only learns that love can't be measured with logic.

After dinner, Amelia follows Leo as he goes out to see Filippo. Even though he lost his cooking skills, Filippo is actually still staying in the restaurant. Cooking is his life and he has an endless attachment to it, so he's trying to learn everything all over again. Unlike last time, Leo is really calm today because he already accepted things. Leo didn't expect Filippo to be so determined about cooking though, and he realized he wants that kind of attachment towards Amelia. His rivalry with Joshua still continues, but both of them know the decision is on Amelia's hands.

The next morning, Leo is looking for Amelia to discuss about their Christmas party. He hears her voice from the bathroom, panicking that the faucet Gloria fixed is broken again. Leo comes in and fixes it as quickly as possible, but when Amelia asks him to leave since she's naked, he replies with "I want to see, is that not allowed?" (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ Sadly nothing happens since Leo lets out a cute sneeze, and he goes out saying it's starting to get cold. When he goes out to buy some materials for the party, Leo meets Jean in town. From him, Leo learns that his limit falls on December 25 — Christmas morning.

Later on, Jean also makes a contract with Guido after Castro blows up his mansion. In return of granting him power, Jean is going to take his body after his death. He was planning to use Dalenzio's, but he doesn't mind switching to Guido's. Now that he gained the power of "the whisperer", all Guido needs to do is to kill Amelia. Why? Because Amelia is the only person other than him who has the ability to use Erebos' power, and he wants to eliminate all threats.

During their party preparation, Amelia notices that Leo has been acting strange. When Joshua goes to ask him about this, Leo admits he's going to disappear in two days. He asks Joshua to take care of Amelia after he's gone, but for now they should keep this a secret from her. He's also giving up on their competition, because winning Amelia's heart would be useless once he vanishes. Somehow Amelia can sense that something wrong is going on with Leo, though he tells her it's still a secret for now. Leo is doing everything he can to please Amelia before the limit, but whenever he's alone.. he keeps thinking about what will happen after he disappears.

On the night of the 23th, Amelia gets upset when Leo says he can't stay in this world forever. When Amelia asks if Leo doesn't feel anything about parting with her, he tells her he doesn't know. He feels sad before, but lately he's not sure about anything anymore. Even his rivalry with Joshua has lost its meaning, and Leo nails it down by saying "compared to how it was before, I've lost interest in you." Amelia is shocked and goes back to her room feeling sad, but Joshua knows Leo's feelings reached a dead end because of the limit. He wants Leo to think about the things he will leave behind for Amelia, but sadly Leo thinks the only thing he'll leave behind is simply memories.

Even though Leo and Joshua wanted to have a nice Christmas Eve with Amelia, their party is ruined when Jean suddenly appears before them. Guido ordered him to kill the three of them, but he's more interested to have a duel with Leo until morning comes. Jean tells her that Leo is going to disappear in a few hours, and Leo accepts his challenge to protect Amelia's life. But before that, he wants to kill Guido so she won't be in danger anymore. Despite their contract, Jean decides to be a troll and takes Leo to the hotel Guido's staying in.. and that's the end of Amelia's evil uncle. ＼(^o^)／ Apparently this is also Jean's shortest contract ever LOL.

Now that Guido has kicked the bucket, it's time for their promised duel. Amelia and Joshua find them in the church where Dalenzio died, and they keep fighting against each other until finally Leo uses his power on Jean's anti-shinigami gun — erasing its combat ability. His strategy is enough to impress Jean, who then admits it's his loss and disappears with a suspicious laugh.

Amelia is worried since Leo got shot in several places, but he tells her not to worry since his limit has come. Leo says he already did all he can in this world, and he can go back to hell in peace since Amelia is now free from danger. After handing Amelia a certain ring, Leo turns around to Joshua and says he already figured out the answer: even after he disappears, his feelings will remain. Amelia is confused when Leo tells her "I'll be waiting", but Leo vanishes after saying goodbye to them.

Some days later, Amelia informs Filippo about what happened to Leo. She's still shaken about Leo's disappearance, admitting that she won't be able to return to her normal life without him. Filippo is surprised since Leo sounds different from the young master he used to know, and he reveals that today is the last day of his restaurant. Tomorrow he's going to turn himself in to the police, because a crime is still a crime despite the excuse. Filippo also realized that Leo probably only took his arrogance back then, and now he's slowly regaining the cooking skills he lost. If Amelia has a chance to meet Leo again, Filippo wants her to relay a message: "next time I'll be waiting with delicious food!"

Time quickly passed after that. Amelia and Joshua returned to the church, going back to their duties as a priest and sister-in-training. Joshua will keep protecting her — fulfilling his promise to Leo — but he admits defeat to Leo's feelings. Even though Amelia acts cheerful in front of everyone, they can tell that she can't forget Leo after all. One night, Amelia finds the ring Leo gave her that day. She picks it up wondering if her love for him is one-sided, and that's when something suddenly starts shining behind her. When she turns around, Amelia finds herself in Leo's arms. That ring is actually Guido's Erebos ring, and Leo has been waiting for Amelia to summon him again all this time. When Amelia cries saying she loves him, Leo finally tells her "I loved you too, and I will always love you from now on."

In the special event, Leo and Amelia visit the lobelia flower field together. It turns out that Jean noticed him taking Guido's Erebos ring from the hotel that night, and he gave Leo a Nyx stone to form a contract with Guido — allowing Amelia to summon him again. Jean also gives Leo an item that will alter his appearance to match his real age for a few minutes, then he asked Leo to take care of Vicious and the others before leaving. Not like they listened to him though LOL. Leo asks if she's really okay with this since he's an immortal shinigami, and Amelia tells him it doesn't matter. The time they spent apart was really painful for her, so she's satisfied as long as she can stay with him.

After asking Amelia to close her eyes, Leo takes the bottle Jean gave him and drinks the liquid inside. Leo has been thinking of the height difference between him and Amelia, so he's hoping the potion works properly. It changes him into an older, taller, HOT 19 years old Leonardo, and he kisses Amelia before she opens her eyes.

Since Leo has returned, Amelia starts living with him in Dalenzio's mansion. The priest doesn't mind at all, but Amelia still helps out in the church everyday. It's a different case with Joshua though, since he tries to drag Amelia back to the church when Leo invites him to the mansion.  
However, Leo actually wants the three of them to live together again. He thinks of Joshua as a friend despite their past rivalry, and Joshua eventually agrees even though he complains a lot. ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ Joshua asks what he's going to do if Amelia and him die of old age someday, and Leo says he'll probably return to hell. He doesn't have any plans for now, as long as he can stay with Amelia.

The next day, Leo takes Amelia to visit Filippo's restaurant. She tells him about the message he left for Leo back then, though she's not sure if Filippo is already released from prison. It turns out that he's still working in the restaurant, since the police can't arrest him without evidence. Not to mention it's a case from three years ago. Filippo apologized to Leo and admits that he's doing his best in the restaurant, even though he can only make pancakes for now. Filippo then cooks some pancakes for them, and even though Leo gives him a lot of critiques as usual, he realized Leo is really pointing out the mistakes he made when cooking. Amelia feels bad when Leo gets up to leave, but then he tells Filippo he'll be coming back again.

Leo is planning to have a date with Amelia before going back, but Joshua appears to disturb them at the right time lol. As he drags them back to the mansion, Leo says he believes Joshua will accept their relationship someday.. though it's going to take time before he stops disturbing them like this. Since Joshua won't leave them alone, Leo then invites Amelia to go on a private trip next time. He loves her, so it's natural that he wants to be alone with her. Amelia is gaping like a goldfish upon hearing Leo's straight words, but since her big brother keeps butting into their conversation from afar, they decided to just go home for today.


	5. Chapter 5 Luciano

Death Connection – Luciano

Luciano is the flirty, seductive one in the group. He's an expert when it comes to women, and he's also famous for his "quick moves" in that area. Right from their first encounter, he's been trying to hit on Amelia whenever he gets the chance to do so. He can be rather unpredictable as well, since sometimes it's really hard to tell what's on his mind. Luciano was 29 when he died, and he's childhood friends with Vicious despite the huge age gap between them.

Three years ago, Luciano was the one who stole Dalenzio's Erebos ring. It was a test for him to join the Tarantino Family, so he sneaked into the secret study and handed the ring to Guido. It doesn't take long until everyone remembers about this betrayal, but they're willing to let it go because the current Luciano doesn't have any intentions to join Guido's side. Since Amelia is completely clueless about dating and relationships, Luciano teaches her about everything she needs to know — teasing her at the same time. He also tells her there are no rules between a man and a woman. There are only feelings, and Amelia will understand once she falls in love.

However, Luciano also admits that he's twisted. He joined the family in order to survive, but he actually hated Dalenzio. Or rather, he hates good people in general. If he finds something nice, all he can think about is how to corrupt and destroy it.. and people are no exception. Now he wants to "soil" Amelia's purity, watching her turning black before eventually destroying her in the end. Of course Amelia is scared and tries to escape, while Luciano says it's her fault for trusting him. Soon he laughs saying it's just a joke, but once Amelia leaves the room, Luciano goes "..but that's also a lie, let's play around for a little longer."

Three days after the first battle with Guido, Luciano says he's glad Amelia didn't die. At least for now, because he might kill her the next time Guido sends his order. He keeps being vague with his words too. One second he says "I want to destroy you", the next he laughs it off as a joke. Amelia is confused whether Luciano is a friend or foe, though she wants to trust him. At noon Luciano says he's going out to search for himself, asking Amelia to stay with Vicious since he doesn't want him to know. Just as Luciano expected, Vicious was planning to stalk him from the shadows. This plan failed thanks to Amelia's cooperation, so they end up eating tons of cake in the cafe before going home.

When Medicis decides to get information by infiltrating Guido's mansion, Luciano takes the task saying it's perfect for him. Since Vicious still can't remember — probably because he doesn't want to — Luciano then explains about his betrayal. Luciano's reason for betraying the family was simply because he got sick of everything. At first Luciano felt comfortable since Dalenzio created a real "family", not just a bunch of strangers in a mafia gang, but one day he suddenly got fed up with everything. Even though Dalenzio told him the most important thing is the bond between them, Luciano didn't want any of it and threw it all away.

In the past, both Luciano and Vicious were homeless children who lived on the streets. It was hard for them just to find food, so Luciano started looking for jobs when Vicious was 10. One day a client asked him to murder someone, and he accepted since the payment was delicious. Luciano thought Vicious and him would be able to live a decent life with the money, but things didn't go as planned. When Vicious heard about the task, he decided to help Luciano to kill the target. They used up all the money to have fun, and they drifted further away from the normal life they wanted to have. After working as hired hitmen for three years, Serbia finally came to recruit both of them into the Salvatore Family. Luciano joined in right away, while Vicious took two years to make his decision.

Before the incident, all that Luciano wanted was to get away from the family. He moved to the Tarantino Family, though he didn't care about the place at all. Any other mafia gang will do, as long as it's not Salvatore. Just when he thought things are running smoothly, Claudia betrayed him and he died protecting Vicious three years ago. Luciano thinks it's a perfect ending for his life, and yet he was brought back to life as a shinigami. While everyone else are busy thinking about the reason behind the summoning, Luciano couldn't care less. He doesn't have a reason to stay nor a place to belong, and he doesn't want Vicious to poke his nose into his business.  
Luciano then leaves the mansion saying he doesn't belong here.

Amelia is worried and chases after Luciano outside, and soon she finds him surrounded by a group of women in the streets. At first he tells her to go home, but he eventually gives in since Amelia keeps staring at him with puppy eyes. As they walk back to the mansion, Luciano asks why did she disturb him. If she's doing this out of half-hearted sympathy, then he wants her to stop. Right after taking Amelia to the front door, Luciano leaves again saying he might or might not return. Amelia is obviously confused by Luciano's attitude. She doesn't get why he avoids her that much, wondering if she's not allowed to worry about him. In the end, both Amelia and Vicious spend all night waiting for Luciano. He doesn't return.

The next day, Amelia goes to town looking for Luciano. Which isn't a good idea at all, because she gets captured by Claudia and Guido's men. Just before they kill Amelia, suddenly Luciano appears to save her. He doesn't mind if she's worried about him, but one of Guido's men died becaufe of her careless actions. Not this again. Why do these guys keep blaming Amelia for things she didn't do? (╯ ಠ益ಠ ）╯︵ ┻━┻ Luciano then says he hates people like her, and Amelia leaves since he doesn't want to go home with her. She still wants to believe in him, but even Vicious is starting to lose faith. Nobody understands Luciano, because he never shows his real self to anyone. Or rather, because he doesn't trust anyone. Not even himself.

A few days later, Luciano is still wandering around in town. Jean isn't amused with this, so he comes down to greet Luciano in front of a jewelry shop. In order to force Luciano to go back, Jean informs him that Guido will launch another attack soon. He gives Luciano a flute to block Guido's order, but the decision is still in Luciano's hands. Whether he uses it or not, Jean only wants to "have fun" watching them. Since the shop staff doesn't stop persuading Luciano to buy their product, Luciano ends up buying a ring for Amelia. At noon he finally comes back to the mansion, where he receives a warm "welcome back" from Vicious' fist. Amelia notices the flute as the one Jean used in the graveyard, so Nicole decides to give it a try.. which results in everyone fainting at the front door. Including herself.

That night, Vicious tells Luciano that he will never change. Even though he finds Luciano hard to understand now, he won't stop protecting both Luciano and Amelia. After hearing Vicious' sincere dedication, Luciano decides to stop holding back as well. For the first step, he hands the ring to Amelia in front of everyone. Just to see her reaction. However, this plan backfired since now everyone thinks Luciano is proposing to Amelia, and that he left them because he was thinking about this. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ Amelia is happy to receive the ring though, and so Luciano steals a kiss from her as the "reward". Everyone decides to think of it as a greeting, though Joshua rages in the background.

Right after dinner, Guido suddenly orders his shinigami to kidnap Amelia as usual. Amelia tries using the flute to knock them out, but sadly the flute shatters into pieces when she touches it. Since Amelia is useless and doesn't know how to command her shinigami, the battle continues until eventually Jean appears to troll Guido on the other side. When Luciano wakes up later, he tells Amelia that they can't stay like this forever. He's starting to realize that understanding and be understood by other people is actually a nice thing.. but someday the fun times they spend together will come to an end — whether Amelia wants it or not. Luciano also points out there's a chance he might kill her under Guido's order, but Amelia runs off saying she believes in him.

In the morning, Vicious takes Amelia for a walk to clear their heads. They meet Lambert on the way and end up getting chased around by a bunch of police officers, so they enter a random hotel to hide. When Luciano hears about this, he tells Amelia not to enter a hotel so easily with a guy. Of course Amelia doesn't get what it means, but Luciano says it's okay if she wants to enter a hotel with him. She needs to be prepared though, because unlike Vicious, Luciano will definitely do something to her. In any case, Amelia shouldn't tell anyone about this since things can get out of hand. Especially if Joshua finds out lol.

When Luciano goes out at night, Vicious follows him to the street where they grew up. There Vicious asks why Luciano keeps running away instead of facing his feelings properly, but he only says "we're different". Vicious is a radiant existence in Luciano's eyes, and Luciano was drawn to him because they're so different. Luciano then admits that he actually hates Vicious, but at the same time he's also envious. If Vicious is the light, then Luciano will be the shadow. Even if they stay together, they will always be incompatible.

Despite buying a ring for Amelia, Luciano's vague words and behavior continue. He admits life feels easier for him right now, but he couldn't care less about everything else. Even if he hurts Amelia or makes Vicious angry, Luciano doesn't want to hold back anymore. However, Amelia notices that Luciano is just protecting himself. He's staying away from everyone so he doesn't get hurt, forcing himself to think that everything has no value. When she tells him about this, he only laughs saying she has a pretty sharp sense, but he wants her to stop because he hates being observed. Luciano also says Amelia doesn't have any right to worry about him, to stop him from going out, or to love him. ( ಠ_ಠ )

Since Amelia refuses to leave him alone, Luciano ends up taking her to a hotel at night. Despite what he told her not too long ago, Amelia still doesn't understand what it means to visit a hotel with a man. Luciano says he won't take any responsibility for "breaking" her, but Amelia is still going ?(´・ω・`)? until Luciano walks out of the shower only wearing his bathrobe. It's her own fault for following him all the way here, so now he'll show her the "real" relationship between a man and a woman. Sadly Luciano doesn't have the patience to deal with her, so he tells her to go home before he changes his mind.

Soon Claudia delivers Guido's opera invitations to the mansion, and everyone decides to take the challenge. From this point Luciano starts saying he hates Amelia and everything about her, but he admits it would be lonely if she dies in the upcoming battle. Just as expected, Amelia is ambushed by Claudia as soon as the performance started. Guido also orders his shinigami to kill everyone with their anti-shinigami weapon, but then something unexpected happens. Just before Claudia shoots Amelia, Luciano jumps in and takes the bullets — breaking Guido's order on his own. Amelia cries and asks why he did that, but Luciano says he doesn't know either.. and then he passes out in Amelia's arms.

While Amelia and Joshua are busy carrying their friends back to the mansion, Jean punishes Guido and Castro by banishing them to hell. Just as usual.

Later on, Luciano wakes up in his room to find Amelia taking care of him. When he learns that Medicis and Gloria haven't returned, Luciano says it would be better if he never wake up and die. Despite Luciano's "hatred" towards her, Amelia still comes to nurse him every night. Even when he calls her a nuisance and chases her out, she keeps coming back to take care of him. Eventually Luciano gives in saying she can do whatever she wants, which pissed Amelia off pretty bad. The next day she cooks super spicy food just for Luciano, and when he asks her what happened, she answers "I hate you" lol.

Luciano is amused, so he challenges Amelia to have a match. Amelia can pull any pranks and harrass him as much as she likes, while he's going to endure them all. The first one to give up will lose, and the loser will have to grant the winner one wish. Amelia accepts the challenge, and Luciano laughs saying this gonna be fun. Some days later Luciano goes out, and Amelia follows him without asking for the destination. She's just worried about him, but of course he takes it as a part of the match and runs away from her on purpose. Since Luciano's wounds haven't fully healed yet, soon he gets tired and asks Amelia to stay with him for a while. She manages to drag him home, and he agrees to postpone their match until he recovers.

At night, Amelia goes to the study looking for a way to heal Luciano. After going through a lot of difficult books, she finds a recipe for "a medicine that heals everything". Everyone finds her gone from the mansion in the morning, and soon she returns covered in dirt from head to toe. It turns out spent all night gathering the ingredients in the mountain, but Luciano thinks she's just pulling another prank on him.. and so he flips the medicine onto the floor. This shocked Amelia, and she runs off in tears when Luciano says her tears won't work on him. However, Luciano feels really bad when Vicious punches him and explains everything.

When Luciano comes to apologize, Amelia was crying in her room. Luciano explains that both Vicious and him used to live in the streets, and Luciano did anything to survive before meeting Vicious at the age of 20. He stole food and deceived people just to stay alive, and he lost trust everyone because of this reason. No matter how friendly and affectionate they are, Luciano can't (and doesn't want to) trust them. Despite this, Luciano knows he did a terrible thing and apologized to Amelia. After a long silence, Amelia comes out and asks if she can make a new medicine for him. Even if Luciano hates her, she wants him to recover. Luciano finally agrees, and he also gives up on their match. He can never win against her — completely defeated.

Thanks to Amelia's remedy, Luciano is gradually recovering in a few days. His injures haven't fully healed yet, but the pain and fever are gone. When he asks about her wish, Amelia says she only wants Luciano to love himself more. Luciano's surprised since he was expecting her to request a present for herself, but he says he'll try to fulfill that wish. While Amelia still thinks Luciano hates her, everyone else notices that they seem close lately. Luciano thought Amelia is stubborn and annoying before, but now those feelings are gone. She doesn't change at all, so it means he must be the one who changed.

Since Christmas is coming, Amelia asks if she can give him a present. Luciano says he's going to buy one for her too, but he turns silent upon hearing that she wants to prepare presents for everyone. He asks why she keeps approaching a man who hates her, and when Amelia says it's because she wants to get along with him better, Luciano admits maybe he doesn't hate her anymore. Maybe. He needs to know himself more before he can start loving it, but just now he learns something new about himself: he has a strong desire to monopolize. In other words, he gets jealous easily.

At night Joshua drags everyone to the bar to plan a surprise Christmas party for Amelia, while she stays at home with Serbia. From her, Amelia finds out that it was Dalenzio's idea to recruit both Luciano and Vicious into the family. He always saw them lurking around the streets, and he wanted them to have a decent life. Right after Guido shot Serbia's daughter, she actually found out about Luciano's betrayal. She was shocked and thought she has misjudged him all this time, but Luciano said she doesn't even know the real him. He never showed his real self to anyone before, so Serbia knows he's starting to open his heart to Amelia right now. At the same time, Luciano is wondering what kind of present he should buy for Amelia. As he walks through the snowy streets, Luciano realized that he's actually a really weak person and hates loneliness more than anything else.

The next day, Luciano suddenly invites Amelia for a date. This helps everyone a lot, since she keeps giving them a suspicious look as they prepare the surprise party. Luciano takes Amelia to the park, where he admits that it might be impossible to love himself after all.. but right now he can understand himself better thanks to her. Luciano also says he probably won't be able to love Amelia, because he's starting to wonder what love actually feels like. Amelia is happy to hear this though, since the current Luciano feels "warm" and "human-like". The other thing she notices is that whenever Luciano means what he said, he'll turn silent and thinks about it carefully. Otherwise, he's lying and hides how he really feels.

On December 23, Nicole and the others decided to invade Guido's mansion. They're planning to rescue Gloria and Medicis, who are locked up like lifeless dolls inside. Luciano stays in the mansion to protect Amelia with Joshua, and he accompanies Amelia as she buys presents for everyone. After taking some time to think about it, Luciano tells Amelia that he didn't buy any presents for her. He's going to give her an intangible present, and she'll find out tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the infiltration plan doesn't go smoothly because Jean warps Guido and Castro back to the mansion. After ordering his shinigami to fight the others, Guido goes insane as he kills both Claudia and Castro. He knows the Tarantino Family is doomed because they're all just pawns for Jean's game, and he's now blaming Amelia for not dying on All Souls' Day. With her blood he might be able to open the gate, and he'd learn about Jean's power sooner. Since their friends haven't returned by the next morning, Luciano decides to go out since he's got a very bad feeling. He tells Amelia and Joshua that he's going shopping for a while, and even though Amelia knows he's planning something, she decides to wait in the mansion.. until Guido sends Gloria and Medicis to kill her along with Joshua.

Soon Serbia comes to inform her that Luciano is planning to kill Guido alone, but sadly Joshua and her died during the battle. In her desperation, Amelia orders her shinigami to come back to the mansion — where Vicious eventually uses his power to erase Gloria and Medicis. They're all wounded thanks to the anti-shinigami weapons though, and they all disappear one by one as they thank Amelia for the fun times they shared. By the time Luciano kills Guido and returns to the mansion, she was crying alone beside Joshua's body. He hugs her saying everything will be alright because he's here to protect her, and then he takes her to leave the mansion.

As they walk through the streets past midnight, Luciano reveals that his Christmas present for Amelia is to "set her free". He already took care of Guido, who doesn't really care about dying anyway, so Amelia is now free from danger. Luciano then takes her to the church where she grew up, telling her to go on ahead and see the priest while he stays outside for a moment. He knows killing Guido alone won't be enough, because there's still another thing he needs to do in order for her to be completely free — to vanish and release her from this shinigami problem. Soon the sun starts rising and time is running out, so Luciano uses his power to cut the future and erases the time Amelia spends talking to the priest. There's something he needs to tell her before the limit comes.

When Amelia returns outside, Luciano tells her they can't stay together because he's going to disappear soon.. but he's already satisfied. Luciano then lifts her chin and kisses her, finally confessing that he's been in love with her all along. Amelia cries and begs him not to go, but Luciano only thanks her, says goodbye, and vanishes without a trace.

A few months later, Amelia is working as a sister in the church. She teaches the children that shinigami exists, and they're not a bad "god" — they're just a sad, painful existence. While she already accepted everyone's death, she still can't get over Luciano's disappearance because she loves him too.. and she will always do. As she walks through the road outside the church one day, Amelia suddenly feels that someone's embracing her. She feels a nostalgic, painful sensation, as if Luciano is standing beside her. Which is true, because Luciano is hugging her from behind. She just can't see him because he's invisible.

On All Souls' Day, Amelia visits everyone's graves and wonders how they're doing up there. She tells Luciano that she can't forget him, and probably will never be able to do so. She puts a letter for Luciano on the grave before leaving, telling him to keep the contents a secret from everyone else. In hell, Luciano wonders if he went too far by hugging Amelia back then. Jean granted him the permission to see Amelia on the condition that he stays invisible, but he didn't expect Amelia to realize his presence. After reading Amelia's letter, Luciano says it's enough for him as long as their feelings are connected. Even though they won't be able to meet each other anymore, his feelings for her will never change.

While Luciano enjoys reading Amelia's regular letters for two years, Vicious thinks it would be better if he goes to see her directly. Even if Luciano says he's satisfied with this condition, he knows it's not enough. Someday Amelia will die as a normal human, and that will be the end of their relationship. Everyone then tries looking for a way to open the gate so Luciano can meet Amelia once every year on All Souls' Day, though Jean has a more interesting idea. He's going to grant Luciano's wish — which is to disappear completely — but Luciano has to play along with Jean's rule. Later on Jean visits Amelia on October 30, telling her to go to the graveyard on All Souls' Day no matter what.

Amelia doesn't know the reason, but she follows Jean's words and visits everyone's graves on November 2. Right after she puts her letter on the grave, suddenly the gate appears and a confused Luciano comes out from the other side. He's surprised to find Amelia in front of him, but he quickly realized that Jean must be trolling him again. Amelia cries happy tears and tries to confess before he vanishes again, but Luciano stops her and mentions the simple rule Jean set out for him — for Amelia to fulfill Luciano's wish. When Amelia asks what he's wishing for, Luciano kisses her saying he forgot.

Even though Luciano kept telling himself that he's satisfied just by reading Amelia's letters, he admits it's so much better to have his feelings returned. He asks if she loves him too — even though he already knew from her letters — and he laughs when she answers "you're mean and nasty" lol. Luciano doesn't know how long he can stay with Amelia in this world, but they don't mind as long as they can stay together.. no matter how short their time will be. Luciano's wish is already fulfilled just by meeting Amelia again.

Meanwhile, Jean goes "disappear completely? yeah right ( ´_ゝ`)" in hell. It's obvious that he set things up so Luciano will meet Amelia directly, and he's leaving the gate open for now. Of course there might be people like Guido who wants to use the gate to gain his power, but he wants to see how Luciano will use the gate in the future.


	6. Chapter 6 Medicis

Death Connection – Medicis

Medicis is a polite, honorable gentleman who used to be in charge of the family's finance and accounting. He was incredibly loyal to Dalenzio, putting the boss on the top of his priority list. Beside handling money, Medicis is also the tactician of the group. Despite his mild-mannered personality, he actually loves thinking of strategies to torture their enemies. Medicis also hid a gigantic sum of money in the mansion, which should be enough to support them for years.

After Nicole's love lesson, Medicis reveals that he actually has a woman allergy. He suddenly got this allergy after his grandmother's death, and just one touch from a woman is enough to make him faint. He used to play around with women when he was younger, but this allergy caused him to get dumped repeatedly before his death. Obviously this also works on Amelia, so he panicks whenever she comes too close. (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ Medicis also remembered that he used to run the family's main bank until it was crushed by his uncle, Leonald, who owns a famous bank supporting the Tarantino Family.

One day after Guido's attack on All Souls' Day, Medicis has a flashback about his grandmother handing a key to him. She knew her time was running out, so she gave her mansion and all of her properties to Medicis before she died. His father, Stefano, and Leonald have been fighting over her fortune for ages, but she loved Medicis more than she loved them. Medicis knew this will only create more dispute between his father and his uncle, but she doesn't care about her money-hungry sons. She said she wants Medicis to be free from this family, and he asked for some time to think about this.

When he wakes up, Medicis has no memories about what happened in the graveyard. It's the same for Gloria and Luciano too. The last thing they can remember is receiving Guido's order, and suddenly they're back in the mansion after that. It hurts Medicis' pride to be summoned by their enemy, and he feels really guilty for attacking Amelia. Not to mention it's not recorded in his memories either. To lighten up the mood, Amelia makes some tea for him. She changes the subject by asking if Medicis always speaks politely to everyone, and he says he was raised this way. His parents were harsh, so he often escaped to his grandmother's house when he was small. Medicis then invites Amelia to have tea in town next time, though she needs to be careful just in case Guido sends a sudden command.

The next morning, Medicis goes out to visit Leonald. Amelia thinks he's going on a date though, and he turns red when she asks him about this. (。-∀-)ﾆﾋｯ Knowing he's not on good terms with his uncle, Amelia is worried and decides to accompany him. It turns out Medicis wants to borrow Leonald's name to register their mansion. Since the legal owner, Dalenzio, died three years ago, the mansion is officially a vacant house. He managed to stop the real estate agent from selling the mansion up until now, but they have to register an official owner.. or else they will be considered as illegal intruders. The new owner must be a person with high authorities too, since the mansion used to be a mafia mansion in the past.

Leonald replies by saying he won't accept any requests without merits. Since Medicis doesn't have anything that can please him, he demands Amelia as the payment. While Leonald is quite confident with his idea, Medicis refuses saying he was a fool to ask for his help. He's treating Amelia like a tool to play with, and Medicis can't accept that kind of insult. Obviously Leonald is enraged and tries to attack him, but he forgot he's dealing with a mafia here. Medicis grabs his arm and uses this chance to threaten him — accept the deal or die. Leonald doesn't have any choice, and Medicis takes Amelia to leave with a smile.

Back in the mansion, Amelia learns from Gloria that Leonald has been harassing Medicis for a long time. The cause is none other than his grandmother's property. When Leonald bought his bank, Medicis went berserk and dragged Gloria to get drunk for a whole week. Obviously he hates Leonald with a passion, and he would never ever see his uncle unless it's necessary.

Late at night, Amelia finds a drunk Medicis near the front door. Everyone finds it surprising that he went out to drink all alone, but apparently meeting Leonald was too much for him to handle. When Amelia says it seems like he suffers a lot behind everyone's backs, Medicis says it's his role to stay in people's shadows. It's different in Amelia's eyes though, since she thinks of him as a quick-witted and reliable adult. Medicis laughs saying he didn't expect such a high opinion coming from her, and he invites her to go out as a sign of gratitude.

They have tea in a cafe again the next day, where Amelia asks Medicis to tell her more about her father. Medicis describes him as a "fun" person whose personality wasn't suitable to be a mafia, but he was the perfect boss because he charmed everyone — his subordinates loved him a lot. While Guido uses fear to control his men, Dalenzio's subordinates all followed him by their own will. On the other hand, Medicis is a scheming man and they called him the "secret boss" lol. Despite her initial opinion and disappointed in Dalenzio, Amelia admits the more she hears about her father, the more she loves him.

Noticing that Medicis is always thinking all the time, Leo tells him to give his brain a rest once in a while. The result is the complete opposite, as Medicis keeps thinking about this even when everyone's making a ruckus over dinner. He admits it's hard to let his mind go blank, and Nicole adds it's because his mind is always full. Sometimes he also smiles alone, though nobody can tell what's on his mind. Medicis even thinks a lot when Amelia brings a cup of chamomile tea to help him relax, so she tells him not to worry since she will never deceive him. Medicis says he never doubts her in the first place, though he thinks she should fool men from time to time — in order to increase her feminine charm. He was joking, but Amelia takes this seriously because she wants to be a charming lady.. like Nicole.

Following Nicole's suggestion, Amelia goes to visit Medicis again the next day and blurts out "w-will you sleep with me tonight!?" LOL. He instantly chokes and blushes upon hearing this, though he knows it must be Nicole's idea. Of course Amelia thinks they're going to sleep for real, so Medicis tells her the word "sleep" holds a different meaning here. She should save it for the man she really loves. Amelia apologized and says she's still a kid after all, but Medicis knows the cause is none other than himself. At first Medicis can only look at her as "the boss' daughter", but right now he's looking at the real her — a 17 years old girl named Amelia.

When she goes shopping with Medicis, Amelia learns that he's actually a rich nobleman just like Leonald. He used to live in a castle and had servants to serve him, but that was before he cut off all ties with his family. Rather than forcing his mind to rest, Medicis finds it much more relaxing to go shopping with Amelia. She buys some ear plugs hoping they can block Guido's order, and this actually gives him an idea. Before Medicis can explain, Guido suddenly sends a command to kidnap Amelia. Medicis instantly turns silent, while Luciano and Gloria appears to carry out the order. This is a good chance to test the idea he's thinking of.

By using all of his willpower and concentration, Medicis actually manages to block out Guido's order from his mind. He protects Amelia from Luciano and Gloria's attacks, until eventually the three of them faint for different reasons. Luciano and Gloria collapsed because Jean showed up to threaten Guido, while Medicis faints because Amelia accidentally touches him. Later on Medicis tells the other two how to block Guido's order from their minds, but they need a more effective method since this one takes a lot of concentration. At night Amelia makes coffee for him, while Medicis wonders if he can fix this woman allergy of his. It's a disadvantage during battle and he couldn't date anyone seriously because of this.

A few days later, Amelia learns about the order everyone joined the family. Medicis was the first to join at the age of 19, while Gloria joined in to save Nicholas from another mafia family. Dalenzio recruited Gloria on purpose, knowing that Medicis has always wanted a partner to work together with. After everyone decides to keep an eye on Guido's movements, Medicis takes Amelia to visit his grandmother's grave. Amelia is the one who asks if she can come, but Medicis says it's nice to bring a sister (in training) along — though he later admits it's just an excuse. Medicis then takes a key from his grandmother's grave, saying it's important for him to figure out why he was summoned as a shinigami. When Amelia asks about the key, he replies with "it's a magic key that might be able to cure my allergy."

While Nicole thinks Medicis was going to confess to Amelia in the graveyard, Medicis admits it was only because he finds it hard to visit the grave alone. For now he only tells them it's a key to a faraway place he sealed a long time ago, along with his past. Meanwhile, Guido suddenly borrows a large sum of money from Leonald's bank. When Leonald asks him about this, Guido tels him to be thankful. He's using the money to develop anti-shinigami weapons, which should be able to hurt Medicis as well. In return of lending him money, Guido will give the first finished product to Leonald. Or so he thought.

Knowing he can't leave Amelia in the dark forever, that night Medicis finally tells her about his family. The Filbert family is well-known for their honorable origin and longstanding history, and naturally Medicis brought up so he won't put his family to shame. They decided everything for him, and he thought it's natural until he met his grandmother. When she told him "your eyes are dead", Medicis realized he has never felt any emotions before. Even when he was dating, he only did it because his parents arranged him to meet the girls — putting their family reputation above everything else. Ever since their fmeeting, Medicis' grandmother became his teacher in life. She taught him all kinds of emotions, as well as the important things he needs to know to live his life to the fullest.

When her health condition dropped, she gave all of her fortune to Medicis. His parents and his uncle only cared about her fortune, and they didn't give a damn about her health at all. Medicis knew he should keep her company until the end, but he was too scared to face her death. In the end he ran away from her, and she died alone leaving only a letter for him. He only found a simple message inside: "live freely". Medicis cried upon reading her letter. Up until the end of her life, his grandmother taught him emotions he never knew before — frustration, regret, and self-hatred. It was the guilt that triggered his woman allergy, thinking that his grandmother died because of him.

After her death, Medicis left his family. He donated all of her properties for charity, and so the only thing left is her old mansion. It didn't take long until Medicis ran out of money, so he lived a sluggish life until he finally met Dalenzio. Just like his grandmother, Dalenzio says his eyes are dead. This instantly opened Medicis' eyes, and he followed Dalenzio ever since. As he spent more time in the mafia family, he felt alive for the first time in his entire life. From then he made friends and enemies, and he enjoyed his life until his death three years ago. When Amelia tells him she likes the current him better, Medicis thanks her saying he's glad to hear that. (*´ω`*)

During breakfast the next day, Medicis' jacket got stuck in the chair when he gets up to leave. When Amelia helps him to release it, Medicis slips, falls down, and accidentally kisses Amelia on the lips. (❤ฺ￫艸￩) Normally he would faint instantly, but for some reason Medicis is fine. He wonders if his allergy is cured, though in the end he still faints when Amelia asks him to move. Later on Nicole forces them to tell the truth, and Medicis blushes saying it was an accident. He admits he wants to do it the "normal" way though. ｲﾔ—–(*ﾉ∀ﾉ)—–ﾝ! Amelia also says the kiss tastes like peppermint toothpaste, since Medicis' teeth bumped straight onto her lips LOL.

Since Jean informs them that Guido's creating something suspicious with Castro, Medicis goes out to gather more information. He tries visiting Leonald in the opera theater, but the old man is back to his arrogant self — thinking he's got a weapon to kill Medicis. As he thinks alone in the streets outside, Medicis suddenly hears Guido ordering his shinigami to come to his mansion. He manages to block the order, but sadly it still works on Luciano and Gloria. Guido obviously isn't pleased with how things turned out, and he decides to test their anti-shinigami weapons by ordering them to kiill Medicis. Jean is also present in Guido's mansion, but he only watches in amusement until Medicis eventually awakens his shinigami power and is forced to use it — erasing Gloria and Luciano's existence.

Sadly while both of them only returned to hell, they were erased from everyone's memories. Including Amelia's. She feels that she's forgetting some people, but she can't remember who they are. When Medicis returns to the mansion, he feels really guilty for using his power just to survive. From now on he has to pretend that those two never existed in front of everyone else. Amelia and the other feels weird about Gloria's empty room and the empty bed in Vicious' room, but Medicis tells them it might be a memory from the past — even though somehow they can feel that something is wrong.

Amelia also notices that Medicis looks a bit down, but he says he's just tired after his research last night. After what happened, Medicis is actually starting to lose sight of the reason why he was summoned. He wonders if he's still attached to this world because of his regret, asking Amelia to give him a reason to stay. She tells him that if he can't figure out the reason, he can look for that reason from now on. She's going to help him as much as she can. Medicis thanks her saying he'll try to find the reason, but he'll come to talk to her whenever he feels troubled.

At noon Medicis goes out to clear his head, and he meets Jean in town. Jeantries to get him to fight Vicious and the others just to entertain him, but obviously Medicis refuses to accept such a foolish deal. What Jean wants is to "have fun" by watching them awakening their shinigami power, and since Medicis has done his role well.. Jean says he's done dealing with him, and then he sends Medicis back to hell. Σ(ﾟдﾟ ；) Medicis meets Gloria up there (yes, hell is located above the human world lol), who tells him not to blame himself so much. He understands that Medicis had no choice, and this is where they truly belong anyway. Even though both of them miss the warm life they shared with Amelia and Joshua.

Meanwhile, Amelia is worried sick in the mansion. It's already late at night, and Medicis hasn't returned yet. She joins everyone to search for him the next day, but Medicis is nowhere to be found. After a few days of fruitless search, Amelia regrets not stopping him from going out that day. She thinks he might be staying in his grandmother's mansion, but nobody knows the location except for Medicis himself. Well, Leonald knows too.. but a peasant like her isn't even allowed to see him. When Amelia cries at night, Nicole asks her to think why she feels really sad after Medicis is gone. Everyone's worried about him too, but Nicole knows Amelia holds a different feeling towards Medicis. Sadly Amelia doesn't understand, so Nicole tells her to think about it until Medicis returns.

Since Medicis keeps sighing in hell, Gloria convinces Jean to return him to the human world. If he wants to have fun, then he can seal Medicis' shinigami power permanently — sending him to battle as a shinigami who couldn't reap. Jean is amused by this idea, so he agrees as long as Medicis can keep him entertained. Then he warps Medicis straight to Amelia's room lol. The moment Medicis appears, Amelia hugs him and cries in his arms. He apologized for making her worry, but he feels lucky to see such an expression coming from her. (*´∀`*) Just then they realized that Medicis' allergy is cured, because he doesn't faint even when Amelia hugs him.

When Joshua learns that the allergy is gone, he instantly feels threatened lol. Mostly because Amelia hugged Medicis. Except for Amelia and Leo, everyone then goes to celebrate Medicis' return at the bar, where Nicole keeps teasing him by having a "mutual love" with Amelia. While Medicis thinks about how he really feels, Nicole also orders a special drink for Joshua just so he'll stop making a fuss over their relationship. People usually pass out after a sip, but even if it doesn't work on Joshua.. it certainly works on poor Medicis LOL. Knowing that Amelia was extremely worried about him, the next day Medicis promises that he won't disappear without saying a word again. He also tells her about the deal with Jean, saying he has found a reason to stay in this world — because he wants to love Amelia.

Since the words "want to love" mean Medicis isn't in love with her yet, Amelia feels confused. She keeps thinking about it all day, so Nicole tells Medicis to make things clear for both of them. Following Nicole's advice, Medicis then invites Amelia for an overnight trip in his grandmother's mansion. Amelia gladly accepts, and they leave on a train at night.. while everyone else drags Joshua to get drunk in the bar again, so he won't disturb Medicis and Amelia lol.

Upon arriving at the snowy mountain, Medicis and Amelia have a cute snowball fight. He tells her this warmth is the reason he came back from hell, and he's hoping this trip can be a trigger to sort out their feelings. As they sit in front of the fireplace at night, Medicis confesses that he has fallen in love with Amelia. Probably ever since he returned from hell, though he didn't realize it at first. Sadly Amelia falls asleep and completely missed his confession, so Medicis wakes her up saying she has to confess first if she wants him to repeat what he just said. He pushes Amelia down as she tries to confess, and she manages to say she loves him. Medicis teases her by asking which part of him does she love, but then he finally tells her "I love you". When Amelia asks how much he loves her, Medicis answers "a lot".

Since both of them still wants to be alone, Medicis and Amelia decided to spend another night for Christmas Eve. Amelia asks him to drop his normal way of speaking during their extended stay, and Medicis blushes when she says he sounds like a different person. xD Amelia seems reluctant about going back, so Medicis promises to visit this mansion with her again someday. Instead of worrying about what might happen next, they should enjoy the time they have right now. Amelia doesn't bring any extra change of clothes though, so Medicis lets her wear his pajama for the night.. and he's doing it on purpose LOL. When she comes out with rolled up sleeves and pants, Medicis hugs her saying she's more adorable than he expected.

Meanwhile, Jean makes a contract with Guido after Castro sets his mansion on fire. Guido is excited at first, but it only lasts until Jean goes "why do I have to follow your order? I'm only in to get your body later" and leaves — taking the Erebos with him. Realizing that Jean has just trolled him, Guido can only laugh in desperation as the flames burn him to the ground.

When Medicis and Amelia arrive at the station, he gets a bad feeling similar to the one he had on the night of the incident. This is proven true when Nicole suddenly appears and tells them to run, because Jean is now attacking them like a psychopath on the loose. (´・ω・`A；) Jean is hoping that everyone will release their shinigami power, but he gets bored and sends them to hell before any of them can awaken their power. As if that's not enough, he also killed Joshua when he tried to protect Amelia and Medicis.

Jean then turns to Medicis and says they don't have much time left, revealing that Medicis will disappear when the sun rises. The summoning itself was a part of Jean's plan to "have fun", and they're all just pawns to entertain him. However, Jean is surprised when Medicis reveals that he knows Jean is going to disappear as well. He's impressed that Medicis can read that far, but then he shoots Medicis repeatedly saying it's his punishment for not entertaining him. Amelia cries a river of tears, and Medicis vanishes after thanking her — he doesn't have any regrets anymore. Before going back to hell, Jean hands Guido's Erebos to Amelia. It might be useless for now, but he believes Amelia will be able to keep him entertained someday.  
Then he leaves her all alone, wondering about the meaning behind his words.

A year quickly passed after everyone vanished, and Amelia hates Christmas ever since. One day she meets Leonald in town, and while he complains a lot about Medicis, Leonald admits he never really thought of Medicis as an enemy. In his eyes Medicis is just a greenhorn. When he says it's too bad Medicis disappeared, Amelia thinks Leonald might not be a bad person after all. After Leonald leaves, she thinks about how she wants to see Medicis again. Just then she drops a key, and when she turns around to pick it up.. Medicis is standing before her eyes.

Medicis takes Amelia to his grandmother's mansion after that. As he explains everything about Erebos and the contract, she notices that the Erebos she had is now gone from its bottle. She has summoned him again without realizing. Since it's Guido's Erebos, Jean arranged everyone to make a contract with Guido. He had fun predicting the outcome of the next summoning, and in the end only Medicis got summoned because Amelia missed him. Medicis also tells her that Joshua didn't go to hell, so he must be in heaven right now. ・゜・(PД`q｡)・゜・ Their relationship started in this mansion, and Medicis wants to stay here with Amelia until death comes to pick her up someday.

A few years later, Amelia and Medicis are living a happy life together. Since they got married, Medicis is taking her to greet his family. Amelia asks if he's really okay with her, because she will age while he remains 27 forever. Medicis tells her it's fine because he loves her, and it's more than enough as long as he can stay with her. When she asks how much he loves her, Medicis answers "a lot" — the same answer he gave years ago.

On their way back from the Filbert family's mansion, Medicis says dealing with his family is still as tiring as ever. He doesn't regret coming here though, since he can finally settle things with them after so long. Obviously they're surprised to find Medicis alive and kicking, but they don't really care anyway. Soon Amelia spots Leonald among the crowd, and Medicis goes over to greet him. While Leonald is being thorny as usual, Medicis laughs saying he'll take everything as a compliment — knowing Leonald looked so disappointed when he vanished.

When he learns that Medicis has just reported their marriage to his family, Leonald tells Medicis he has grown up a little bit. Since the mountain mansion is everything Medicis has right now, Leonald gives Medicis his phone number. He has a vacant position in his new company, and Medicis is welcomed to joined them if he's bored without a job. Leonald leaves without saying anything about Dalenzio's mansion, but it's still under his name. When Amelia says she wants to visit their old mansion, Medicis stops her and explains what actually happened to Gloria and Luciano. Amelia won't be able to remember them, but he wants her to know the truth.

After visiting the church, Medicis and Amelia stop by the graveyard at night. Only Dalenzio has a headstone, so they put a lot of flowers there hoping it would be enough to reach everyone else. When Amelia goes to get some holy water, Dalenzio's ghost appears to have a little chat with Medicis. His soul is gone, but he says today is special because it's All Souls' Day. He also reveals that he actually knows everything — ranging from Medicis' marriage to Amelia to his hidden money stash back in their mansion lol. Before disappearing, Dalenzio asks Medicis to take care of his daughter.

However, this "Dalenzio" turns out to be Jean in disguise. Everyone asked him to do it for both Medicis and Amelia's sake, and he agreed saying it's only because he was bored.

As they wait for the night train, Medicis laughs saying Jean's act was pretty good. So yes, he noticed it's not the real Dalenzio lol. Amelia asks if he's hiding something from her, but Medicis says he'll tell her someday to avoid confusion. He tells her to get some sleep on the train, and Amelia says Medicis will probably stay awake to see her sleeping face. Then he'll start smiling alone as usual, because his hobby is weird like that. (。-∀-)ﾆﾋｯ When Amelia falls asleep, Medicis smiles and whispers "I'll make you happy" into her ears.


	7. Chapter 7 Nicole

Death Connection – Nicole

Nicole is a 25 years old sniper dressed in women's clothing and make-up. She keeps insisting that she's 100% a woman, even though her body says otherwise. Other than the "accessory" hanging between her legs, Nicole also uses bra pads to cover up her naturally flat chest. She can also be strict when necessary, but usually Nicole is kind and cares a lot about Amelia. At night she loves sneaking into Luciano's bed, though she often harrasses the others as well.

While everyone quickly remembers each other, none of them have any memories about Nicole working for the family. Nicole doesn't remember anything either, but the fact that Amelia called her proves that she must be a member as well. This mystery remains unsolved until one day, a guy comes out of Nicole's room to explain everything — Nicholas, Gloria's younger brother. He was murdered by Claudia before the incident three years ago, and he died wishing he can tell Gloria everything. Nicholas' wish was granted in the form of Nicole, who was supposed to deliver the message through her similar appearance to Claudia.

Despite her interest and excitement towards love and relationships, Nicole's actually almost as clueless as Amelia about sex. She teaches Amelia about "what a man and a woman would do when they're alone", but she actually thinks they would "sleep naked together on a bed while lulling each other with sweet words". (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ Nicole tries to get Gloria to become her guinea pig, and she gets confused when Gloria says he doesn't want to "embrace" a woman he doesn't love. This leads her to think that making love = hugging each other naked, but Gloria just leaves her in confusion lol. Nicole's room is also pink and frilly. Like a princess' bedroom.

After Guido's attack on All Souls' Day, Nicole and Nicholas are having a fight. Nicole thinks her role is over now that Nicholas already remembers his own death. She wants to stay here, but his body is rejecting her. When Nicole says Nicholas' grudge against Claudia has nothing to do with her, he gets angry and tells her to disappear. At first Nicholas thinks Nicole is just sulking, so he's really surprised to find her gone for real. Obviously everyone else is surprised to see Nicholas back in his own body, but soon Nicholas gets pissed since they keep comparing him to Nicole. He's rather harsh and looks incredibly irritated, while Nicole is easy-going and fun.

When Gloria asks him to explain what actually happened with Claudia, Nicholas says he tried to deceive her. He wanted to get key information about the Tarantino Family, so his plan was to take advantage of Claudia. Back then Nicholas was so sick of standing in Gloria's shadow. Even after joining the family, everyone only looked at him as "Gloria's younger brother". When Dalenzio said he wants to form a contract with Nicholas, all he could think about was whether Dalenzio would remember his name by then. He wanted to do something drastic so everyone would look at him properly, but sadly his plan backfired when Claudia killed him. Nicholas says he doesn't want Gloria's pity though, telling him to stop apologizing.

Upon returning to his room, Nicholas finally realized how pink and girly it is LOL. Sometimes he caught a glimpse of a "pink world" when Nicole was still around, but he didn't expect her to do a full renovation. xD While Nicole is his shadow, Nicholas makes sure Amelia understands that this room decoration isn't a part of his taste. (*ﾉ∀｀)ﾟo｡ｱﾋｬｬ He remember people's faces and names from Nicole's memories though, and that's why he recognized Amelia and Joshua right away. Amelia also tries calling out to Nicole, but Nicholas says it's useless since Nicole won't come out. Nicholas then admits he doesn't understand Nicole's feelings, but later on he starts thinking about what Nicole actually means to him.

However, the situation takes a turn for the worse when Nicholas mentions Luciano's betrayal one morning. From Claudia, he learned that Luciano actually joined the Tarantino Family before the incident three years ago. Everyone doesn't mind since it's all in the past, but Nicholas gets pissed that they won't kill the traitor. Amelia tries to calm him down before he picks a fight with everyone around him, but he shouts "shut up! you're an outsider!" at her. Gloria can't stand his attitude, so he drags Nicholas out saying having Nicole would be so much better than dealing with him. This results in Nicholas running out of the mansion, with Amelia chasing after him.

Nicholas tells Amelia to leave him alone and disappears for a moment, but then he comes back when she gets attacked by Guido's men. It doesn't mean he's being nice though, because he points at their corpses and says "It's your fault they died. If you didn't come here, they won't get killed." ( ಠ_ಠ ) When Amelia cries and apologized, Nicholas only sighs and takes her back to the mansion. It's not over yet though, since on the way home he starts yelling at Amelia for summoning him back into this world. He blames her for everything — for being the daughter of Dalenzio, for summoning them, for creating Nicole. Even after she apologized, he doesn't stop yelling until he cries as well. Then he finally apologized for taking out his anger on her.

On the night before Nicholas' task to infiltrate Guido's mansion, he goes out to drink with Gloria and Amelia. Nicholas asks Gloria to go home first because he wants to talk to Amelia, and he admits it was really pathetic of him to cry in front of her. He was angry at himself for creating Nicole, and it was hard for him to accept that fact. When Nicholas asks if she gets along well with Nicole, Amelia says Nicole is just like a big sister to her. She also shows him a picture of her parents when they were young — the one she found in the mansion. Realizing that she's got a complicated family as well, Nicholas tries to say something to comfort her. He can't find the right words though, so in the end he only asks her to forget about his manly tears lol.

The next night, Nicholas attacks Guido's mansion just as planned. He quickly finds Claudia, and suddenly he changes into Nicole. She admits she doesn't want to kill Claudia because her role will be over, but they have no choice. However, Nicole's bullets keep missing the target since deep inside, she actually doesn't want to disappear. Claudia laughs and keeps mocking her by saying Nicholas died for fake information, which means his effort was actually in vain. Nicole keeps shooting wildly, but eventually she tells Nicholas that it's impossible after all. He replies with "don't worry, you won't disappear" and takes over his body, killing Claudia just as Gloria and Medicis arrived. Nicholas tries calling Nicole on the way home, but she doesn't reply. Even though his life will be back to normal if she disappears, Nicholas doesn't feel happy at all.

Since Nicholas' emotions are still unstable, Amelia decides to visit his room at night. He tells her Nicole is really a woman. It's just she was created based on him, so she can never be female physically. Amelia then says Nicole will be happy if Nicholas accepts her existence. He's been rejecting her as his alternate self, but he might be able to accept her as a friend. Or maybe a sister. Nicholas then admits he actually feels guilty. Nicole did her best to live her own life, and they can see that from the way she decorated the room. At first he thinks accepting her won't solve anything, but then he considers accepting Nicole as his "little sister" lol. When Nicholas leaves the room with Amelia, Nicole appears and whispers "'friends' have such a nice ring."

..and the next day, she comes back.

Nicholas wakes up in the morning to find Nicole lying beside him, greeting him with her playful "good morning " LOL. He screams and runs away thinking it must be a nightmare, but Nicole follows him to the dining room — shocking everyone else. xD Somehow they have split into two different existence now, and Nicole thinks it's probably because of what Amelia said yesterday. The moment she thought about how nice it is to be friends, Nicole found herself in their room. None of them knows the exact reason, but Amelia is more than happy to have her back. Nicholas still finds it hard to believe, so he goes out to drink at noon.. while Nicole goes out on a spending spree lol.

Before leaving, Nicholas tells Amelia that Nicole and him have different personalities because he hates himself. Amelia is worried about him, so she decides to follow him outside. However, Nicholas says it would be dangerous if Guido's men see her. Plus, she shouldn't follow guys so easily. Especially a guy like him. Amelia says he looks like a nice person, but Nicholas tells her he's not. Debating with Amelia blew away his drinking mood, so Nicholas eventually gives up and takes Amelia to have tea in a cafe instead. Nicholas is surprised that Amelia isn't really interested in shopping like most girls, calling her a "housewife" since she only goes shopping to buy food. Just as expected from our gourmand Amelia. ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ

Not too long after they return to the mansion, Guido commands his shinigami to kidnap Amelia. They faint when Jean appears to troll Guido on the other side, but Nicholas feels scared upon seeing Gloria's cold eyes. At night he starts blaming Amelia again, accusing her of using them as her puppets — even though she doen't even want to order them. Amelia snaps saying she didn't call them because she wanted to, and Nicholas apologized for taking out his rage on her again. He admits he wants to get along with everyone, but he always ends up getting irritated after something happens. While he thinks Amelia is just a little girl, Nicholas knows that he's a kid as well. She asks why he hates himself that much, but he only says a lot has happened.

As he puts his back against Amelia's shoulder, Nicholas asks what she thinks about Gloria. Of course Amelia doesn't get his point, so she answers Gloria is a reliable person. Nicholas says he's actually asking about her feelings, and he admits he doesn't hate Amelia. Then he quickly adds "don't misunderstand, it's still five years too early for you to become my woman" lol. She thinks his definition of "woman" means "cook", so she throws a cushion onto his face saying she's not in charge of his meals. This leads to Amelia and Nicholas throwing cushions at each other, but she leaves him the moment Nicole comes back.

Since Nicole is now back in her pink room, Nicholas decides to move to Gloria's room. At night Nicole says she bought a pajama for him, but Nicholas refuses to stay in that room with her lol. When Amelia says they really look similar despite their different personalities, he says Nicole's appearance is based off Claudia's and not him. This causes Nicole to turn silent, and Nicholas realized it must be bothering her. Nicole then says she was born from Nicholas himself. There must be something similar between the two of them, even though they look different. Then she drags Nicholas back to their room. xD

The next day, Amelia goes out with Gloria. He takes her to a cafe in town, where he tells her everything about his past with Nicholas. Not too long after Gloria left their family, Nicholas also quit school and started depending on his girlfriends to support his life. He didn't stop this habit even after Gloria joined the family, so eventually Gloria asked Dalenzio to take Nicholas in as well. He knew that Nicholas wouldn't be able to turn back, but bringing him into the mafia world would be much better than watching him ruining his life even more. When they go back to the mansion, Nicholas admits that he used to hate Gloria in the past. Right now he thinks Gloria is a nice brother though, probably even too nice. Nicholas also says he wanted to experience a normal romance, since he was only leeching off his women back then.

Some days later, Gloria decides to settle his own issue by killing Serbia. This results in a fight between him and Amelia, who locks herself up in her room and refuses to talk to anyone. Not even to Nicholas. She can't accept what Gloria did no matter what, so in the end Nicholas only tells her to cheer up soon. At night Gloria goes out to drink alone, while everyone else leave to get dinner outside. Nicholas decides to stay with Joshua and Amelia in the mansion, but when he goes to check her condition.. he finds her gone from her room. The window is open and he notices a long cloth draping to the ground below, so Amelia must have escaped outside. After informing Joshua about this, Nicholas rushes out to search for her.

When Nicholas finds her in the streets, Amelia tries to run away from him. He quickly catches her asking why she's running away. She would be worried if someone leaves without saying a word, so she shouldn't do the same to them. When Amelia asks why he goes out to look for her, Nicholas answers it's obviously because he's worried. Not only because she's Dalenzio's daughter, but also because nobody would cook for them.. and he also has a personal reason. (。-∀-)ﾆﾋｯ Since Amelia is still reluctant, Nicholas then lifts her up and carries her back on his shoulder. He admits he doesn't understand Gloria's reason for killing Serbia, but then again he's not really interested in learning more about people. If someday he can find a person who understands him, Nicholas might be able to feel that kind of curiosity.

Since Guido sends a bunch of opera invitations to the mansion, everyone decides to take his challenge. Amelia feels worried and visits Nicole's room on the night before the opera, though she gets a dress instead of an advice. Nicole then leaves to harrass Luciano, telling Nicholas "good luck" before closing the door. xD Since Amelia is worried about everyone's safety, he tells her to worry about herself first. He'll do everything he can to protect her, so she needs to be careful as well. On the night of the opera, Guido orders his shinigami to kill Amelia and the others — equipping them with anti-shinigami weapons. Both Nicholas and Joshua get hurt as they try to protect Amelia, but soon Jean comes to stop this mess.

After knocking both Gloria and Nicholas out, Jean tells Joshua and Amelia to carry them back to the mansion. Nicholas will vanish if they don't treat him quickly, but they have to look for a way to heal a shinigami by themselves.. because Jean is a a troll and will never tell. Jean then leaves them to punish Guido and Castro for ruining his "fun" — sending them to hell along with Gloria, Luciano and Medicis.

While Joshua is busy carrying everyone from the theater, Amelia takes care of Nicholas in the mansion. Nicholas wants to give up and lies in bed waiting for his second "death", but later on he wakes up to find Amelia stitching up his wounds. It stops the bleeding, much to everyone's relief, but the wounds didn't heal until Joshua makes the special medicine. When Amelia brings some food for him, Nicholas says he feels pathetic to stand in Gloria's shadow all the time. He tried to gain recognition, but in the end it failed and everyone died. However, Amelia says she never looks at him as "Gloria's brother". She was surprised when he first appeared to replace Nicole, but she wants to know more about Nicholas. Her worries caused her to fail at cooking, so Amelia then makes a new meal and helps feeding Nicholas from the spoon.

As Nicholas starts recovering, he learns that Amelia used to think of the priest and Joshua as her real family. She was shocked upon hearing that they're not blood related, but soon she got over it and waited patiently for her real parents to come. Even though they never did. Nicholas tells her that his situation was similar to her. He only had his mother back in his childhood, and that was enough for him. So when one day his father came with his older brother, he couldn't accept them as a family and rebelled. Amelia and him are so different despite their similar past, and Nicholas wonders what he's been doing all this time.

When Amelia goes out to buy more bandage for Nicholas, Nicole drags her to go shopping. On the way they meet Lambert, who is now busy looking for the missing Guido and Castro. Nicole looks sad when he calls shinigami "monsters", because she's a shinigami's shadow — a more unusual existence. Only Leonardo notices that Nicole has something on her mind though. Back in the mansion, Joshua and Nicholas are having a fight as usual. Nicholas asks why he made that medicine if he hates mafia that much, and Joshua says it's because Amelia will be sad if Nicholas vanishes. When Joshua says he needs Nicholas to protect her, Nicholas apologized and says he understands. Claudia has paid for her crime and Gloria has learned the truth, so now his only role is to protect Amelia. Joshua saved his life, and he shouldn't put it to waste.

Later on, Amelia visits Nicholas and tells him what happened with Lambert and Nicole earlier. Nicholas says it's his fault for creating Nicole, but recently he's starting to feel something else other than guilt — something that Nicole said as well. When Amelia says she loves Nicole for who she is, Nicholas asks "what about me?" ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ Surprisingly Amelia calmly replies with "I like you too", and he says girls are usually more shy whenever they say things like this. When Nicholas tries imitating a girl's confession, Amelia bursts out laughing since he sounds exactly like Nicole lol. Nicholas actually realized that he's falling in love with Amelia, but since he knows the limit will come soon.. he can't tell her how he feels.

Nicholas can start walking again by the next day, and he visits the park with Amelia. After she puts some flowers for Serbia, Nicholas says a mafia's life has little value compared to normal people. They live and do everything for their boss, and once their boss dies.. it's over. There are also people like Guido who tries to take the seat for himself, but usually mafia follow their boss until the end. Amelia then asks what kind of person Dalenzio was, and Nicholas says he was a kind person. He looked "normal" compared to mafia in general, but he was a great boss who watched over his subordinates like a father.

Knowing Nicole will probably throw a Christmas party for everyone, Nicholas invites Amelia to go out with him on December 23. Since Amelia is being dense as usual and keeps asking why, Nicholas admits he only wants to have a date with her. (。-∀-)ﾆﾋｯ She goes to Nicole to get some advice, and Nicole asks how she really feels towards Nicholas. Sadly while Nicholas is sure about his feelings, Amelia doesn't understand what love feels like. ┐(´～`；)┌ Since she knows Nicholas won't tell Amelia how he truly feels, Nicole decides to help by dragging Amelia to town — buying all the stuff she needs for the date. They don't know when they're going to disappear, so Nicole wants them to have fun before then. She also gives an early Christmas present for the two them, but they're not allowed to open it before the 23rd.

Despite Nicholas' attempt to keep it a secret, everyone learns about their date from Nicole. At night Joshua forces him to admit everything, so Nicholas drags him out to the bar as usual lol. There he admits that he's in love with Amelia, but he doesn't have any intentions to confess to her. Even if she returns his feelings, she will only get hurt when he vanishes. While Nicholas thinks his love isn't mutual, Joshua knows Amelia probably shares the same feeling. She just hasn't realized it yet. At first Joshua keeps saying he's against their relationship, but then he tells Nicholas "remember, don't make her sad!"

On December 23, Amelia wears the dress and Nicole helps with her make-up. Nicholas keeps grumbling about how girls take a LONG time to dress up, but he blushes and turns silent upon seeing Amelia. In fact, he can't take his eyes off her during lunch. (❤ฺ￫艸￩) It doesn't help that he opens Nicole's present to find a message card saying "I reserved a hotel room for the two of you. Have a wonderful night. Fufu " LOL. Sadly Nicholas doesn't want to go that far with Amelia, so instead of the hotel, he takes her to the church where she grew up. As she goes around to look at the Christmas decorations, Nicholas hands a ring to the priest. He spent the last few days making the ring just for Amelia, but since he can't give it to her directly.. he asks the priest to give it to her after he's gone.

After having fun watching Amelia's reactions two rounds of horror movies, Nicholas says he doesn't need any Christmas presents since today's date is more than enough for him. Amelia keeps insisting though, so finally he gives in and asks "can I kiss you?" (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ She can think of it as a greeting, though the kiss will be special to him. When Amelia says yes, Nicholas kisses her saying he's already satisfied. Then he thanks her and says it was fun today.

When they return to the mansion, Joshua immediately bombards Amelia with questions while Nicole goes ヽ(# `д´)ﾉｷｨｲｲｯ! at Nicholas for not using her present lol. Of course Joshua goes "R-ROOM!? WHAT ROOM?" upon hearing this, but everyone drags him away before he could rage. Since Nicole finds it unexpected that Nicholas doesn't want to go that far, Nicholas says it's because Amelia is different from all the women dated in the past. He doesn't want to hurt her. On the other hand, Amelia is starting to be more aware of Nicholas after the kiss. Both of them are equally distracted during the Christmas party preparation, while Joshua keeps giving Nicholas a suspicious look from the corner. xD

The next morning, Jean warps Guido and Castro along with his shinigami to the human world. By this time Guido already got sick of Jean's game and refuses to cooperate, so Jean decides to get rid of him by twisting his heart indirectly. Then he kills Castro as well because he only needs the weapons, not the scientist. As if that's not enough trolling already, Jean also orders Guido's shinigami to kill everyone in the mansion. Amelia and Joshua included.

Back in the mansion, Joshua is forcing Nicholas to explain what happened last night. Nicholas tells him to calm down since he didn't lay his hands on Amelia. There's no way he can do that knowing he'll have to leave her someday, and he has decided to give up on her after the date yesterday. Nicholas says he knows he's really stupid for falling in love in this condition, not to mention he always regrets everything he did. Like creating Nicole or rejecting Gloria. Just then they hear a crashing sound from the living room; and that's where they find Luciano, Medicis and Gloria — ready to attack them. They also reveal that when the sun rises tomorrow, all of them will disappear. It's their limit.

During the battle, Medicis shoots Joshua and Jean appears only to laugh at them. Since Gloria keeps chasing Amelia when she escapes outside, Nicholas has to deal with his anti-shinigami knives again as he tries to protect her. Just before Gloria can finish him off, Joshua suddenly appears and shoots Gloria with Medicis' gun. Joshua asks Nicholas protect Amelia, telling him to tell Amelia about his feelings. Then he dies in Nicholas' arms.

Nicholas' power brings Gloria back to his senses, but sadly the sun already starts rising when their battle ends. Nicholas faints right after Gloria disappears, and Nicole wakes him up saying they still have a little time left.. so he should use it wisely. Before joining everyone else back in hell, Nicole tells Amelia that she loved her as a sister and wants her to be happy. After a short silence, Nicholas finally confesses that he loves her. It's really painful for him and he regrets it, but he can't deny his own feelings. When Amelia cries saying she loves him too, Nicholas tells her those words alone are more than enough for him. Now it's his turn to vanish, so Nicholas uses his shinigami power to erase Amelia's love, tells her not to fall in love with him, and finally says goodbye to her.

Back in hell, Nicole wonders if erasing Amelia's feelings was really for the best. She thinks it'd be better if she remains in love with Nicholas, but Nicholas doesn't want her to suffer. Loving someone from another real would be painful for her, though it also goes the same for Nicholas himself. Meanwhile, Amelia has returned to the church and resumed her job as a sister. Three years has passed since everyone left her alone, and she goes to visit their graves everyday. One day, Amelia is on her way towards the graveyard when suddenly Nicole lands in front of her. Apparently she bugged Jean so much ("I want to fall in love! I don't wanna date a ghost!") until he got tired and warped her away. Which is sad since Jean is the only one who calls her a "woman" right from the start, and for a moment she thought he's a "nice man" lol.

Nicole doesn't care though. Since she's now back in the human world, she drags Amelia to do some romance hunt in town. When Nicole accidentally says "even though you have Nicholas", Amelia tells her she received Nicholas' present from the priest.. but for some reason, she can't bring herself to open it. As they walk to the church at night, Nicole says Amelia looks the best when she's in love after all. She can't remember anything right now, but Nicole tells her to ask her heart and find the answer. There must be something important in the present, even though Nicholas can't express himself really well. Nicole has to go back now since Jean is calling her, but she says she'll do something about Nicholas. The rest depens on Amelia herself.

A few years later, Amelia finally decides to open Nicholas' present. When she sees the ring Nicholas made for her, Amelia suddenly feels empty inside.. though she doesn't know why. At the same time, Nicole finally manages to get Jean to sending Nicholas to the human world. He will have to return to hell at night, but Nicholas takes this chance to see Amelia again. While Nicholas doesn't know what he should say to her, Amelia doesn't care and hugs him as soon as she saw him. Even though he was the one who erased her feelings, Nicholas admits that he regrets using his power on her. Years has passed, but all he can think about is their date before Christmas Eve.

The day passes by so quickly as Nicholas takes Amelia on a date. Soon it gets dark outside, and Nicholas confesses to Amelia again. He's still in love with her, and he can never forget her. However, Nicholas is surprised when Amelia cries saying she loves him too. He erased her feelings back then, but she finally remembers how she really feels. Nicholas then puts the ring on Amelia's finger and tells her to find a good man. Until then she should remember that he will always be watching over her. Then he says goodbye and disappears.

After returning to the church, Amelia cries all night knowing she will never see Nicholas again. Nicholas isn't doing great either, and he confides in Gloria that his feelings are starting to float into the surface again after meeting Amelia. Gloria can't stand seeing him drowing in sadness like this, so he decides to use his shinigami power for Nicholas — telling him to fix everything as he turns back the time. After sending Nicholas back in time, Gloria asks Jean to remove the limit from Nicholas, and Jean agrees since it makes things more "interesting". For him, at least. Nicholas finds himself on the last night he spent with Amelia, just before he went back to hell. When Amelia cries and says she loves him, Nicholas kisses her saying he'll always stay with her until the day she dies.. and the ring he made now becomes their engagement ring.

Since he can't live in a hotel forever, Nicholas decides to rent a room. He also informs her that Joshua didn't go to hell, so he couldn't thank Joshua for pushing his back that day. She won't be able to see them, but everyone is watching over her from above. After lunch they visit the church, where Nicholas blushes and stutters as he asks the priest for the permission to marry Amelia. (❤ฺ￫艸￩) The priest gives them his blessings, but Amelia remains quiet as she walks Nicholas out of the church at night. When Nicholas asks her what happened, Amelia whispers that she wants to stay with him tonight. In other words, she wants to have sex. (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ He blushes and asks if she's really okay with that, but when Amelia asks whether he's happy or not, Nicholas replies with "don't ask such an obvious question!"

..and this is where the game trolls you. The situation gets really good since Nicholas says "it's not my first time, but this is your first right? I'm nervous." ｲﾔ—–(*ﾉ∀ﾉ)—–ﾝ! But since Amelia seems like she's forcing herself, Nicholas says her feelings are enough for now. They should save the continuation for next time. NOOOOESSSS. (ノ`д´)ノ〃┻━┻ They end up having yet another lover's quarrel since Amelia's obviously disappointed, but they quickly make up when Nicholas kisses her. When Amelia says they'll keep fighting and making up even after they get married, Nicholas laughs saying they should buy their wedding rings tomorrow. He admits he wants to continue what they were doing, but he'll wait until their wedding night.


	8. Chapter 8 Vicious

Death Connection – Vicious

Vicious is 17 years old and wields dual guns in battle. He's hot-blooded, violent and jumps into fights quickly, but for some reason he also believes in superstition. He thinks black cats bring bad luck, so he always avoids them whenever he goes out. Vicious also believes that power is everything that matters in this world, and he tries to solve every problems with power. Even though that doesn't work most of the time. He has a serious case of sweet tooth.

Three years ago, Luciano's betrayal enraged Vicious. He couldn't forgive Luciano and the two of them got into a short battle in front of the church, but in the end Luciano died protecting him from Claudia's bullet. Even after Amelia summoned him, the memories of Luciano's betrayal is still locked up inside his memories. Most likely because he doesn't want to remember. Despite his rough way of speaking, Vicious always protects Amelia whenever she gets in danger. He also gives her a red pepper keyholder, believing it can protect her like a charm. Upon learning that Amelia is a clueless virgin, Vicious blushes as his mind flies off to the erotic zone — even though he tries to deny it.

Since Amelia is so innocent, Luciano teases her by saying he wants to talk about Vicious. He takes her to their room, and there she finds Nicole trying to strip Vicious on his bed. Obviously Vicious is trying to resist, but Amelia thinks they're dating because Luciano says it happens on a daily basis. Not to mention Nicole keeps telling her not to disturb. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ Vicious finally clears this misunderstanding after dinner, even though Amelia doesn't really get what's going on. xD Before Halloween, Vicious gives Amelia a picture of her parents from Dalenzio's study. He invites her to visit Dalenzio's grave together, but sadly their plan is interrupted when Claudia appears to drop a hint that Guido will attack soon.

After the graveyard battle with Guido, Vicious finally remembers about Luciano's betrayal. The others are willing to forget it since Luciano isn't interested in the Tarantino Family anymore, but it's not so easy for Vicious to forgive him. He can't do anything about it though, since Luciano is an immortal shinigami.. and even if they find a way to kill a shinigami, Vicious isn't sure if he can bring himself to do it. For now he's going to protect the family and Amelia, whether Joshua likes it or not. Later on Luciano asks Amelia to stop Vicious from tailing him, so Amelia distracts Vicious by coming along. On the way, Vicious describes the "strange" sensation he got when Amelia subconsciously sent an order, so she tries ordering him again by saying "Vicious, fall down!" in her heart LOL. It doesn't work though.

Vicious soon loses sight of Luciano thanks to Amelia, so he takes her to eat some cake before going home. When the waitress asks for their order, Vicious goes "this and this and that, also this and that.." as he orders every single cake on the menu. (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ Amelia has been wondering about this since Vicious always finishes his desserts, but his sweet tooth is way beyond her expectation lol. Noticing that she's staring at him with a surprised look, he blushes and says "i-it's not that I love sweets THAT much!" as he gulps down the cakes happily. Then he shares some of his cakes with Amelia. ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ Apparently this isn't enough meal for Vicious, since he drags Amelia to another cafe before eating dinner at home.

When Vicious learns that Luciano betrayed them because he "got sick of the family", he feels that he doesn't know Luciano anymore. They have been sticking together for a long time, and yet he never knew about this side of Luciano. Joshua's harsh words about mafia only makes him more upset, and he ends up running out of the mansion. Everyone knows he'll come back later, but Amelia is worried and goes out to search for Vicious. However, she meets Lambert in town instead. In his eyes Amelia is only a tool to get extra rewards from Guido, but Vicious soon appears to chase him away. Obviously he's not amused that she's going out alone, but when Amelia starts crying out of relief.. Vicious blushes and hugs her saying "you're weird, but thanks."

One morning after Luciano returns, Vicious suddenly drags Amelia away from the dining hall. He warns her not to accept "something" from Luciano, and he apologized saying he'll buy "it" for her next time — leaving Amelia confused. She doesn't have time to think about this though, since Guido suddenly orders his shinigami to kidnap her during a discussion. Which eventually results in them fainting after Jean appears to mess with Guido on the other side. Amelia goes to check Luciano's condition at night, and that's when Vicious says they all might disappear in the end. After all, they're no longer a part of the human world. Vicious then apologized since Amelia is clearly upset, but she's not the only one. He doesn't want to part with her either.

The next day, Vicious invites Amelia to go out. They were planning to go shopping as well, but Lambert disturbs their plan by ordering his men to capture them. The police keep chasing them around the town, so Vicious takes Amelia to hide in a random hotel nearby. Of course staying in a hotel room with Amelia makes Vicious nervous, and even though he tries to hold back, he ends up pushing her down onto the bed. (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ He blushes and mutters about "what to do from here", but sadly she doesn't get the hint and says they should go home instead. When Vicious says they should follow the "order" instead of suddenly attacking her like this, Amelia only goes "attack? were you attacking me? what do we do after that" ?(´・ω・`)? ..and so the poor guy takes her home lol.

After Claudia delivers Guido's opera invitations, Amelia goes shopping with Vicious. They visit a boutique so Amelia can buy a dress for the opera, and she keeps asking for Vicious' opinion as he blushes in the background. ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ He says they're not going to the opera for fun, but then he adds "well, isn't it nice? it suits you.." as they walk out of the boutique. (｡￫∀￩｡) Back in the mansion, Amelia puts the dress on and goes to show Vicious. He bought it for her, so she wants him to be the first person to see. Obviously Vicious blushes like a tomato upon seeing Amelia in a dress, and he quietly admits she looks nice in the dress. When Amelia tells him she's worried about the opera, Vicious replies with "I'll protect you, so don't worry."

On the night of the opera, Guido orders his shinigami to attack Amelia again. Since Castro also equips them with their anti-shinigami weapon, Amelia is forced to escape with Joshua and her shinigami. Eventually Jean comes to stop this "boring fight", but unfortunately Amelia gets hurt protecting Vicious from Luciano's wire. While Vicious brings Amelia to a doctor in a rush, Jean punishes Guido and Castro by banishing them to hell. Bye Guido, see you later. ＼(^o^)／

When she opens her eyes, Amelia finds herself back in her room. Vicious has been watching over her, and he's worried sick since she's been unconscious for a few days. Luciano, Gloria and Medicis are missing, but for now Vicious is glad that Amelia is okay. Since she still needs to recover, he cooks a nasty risotto hoping it can make her feel better. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ At night, Vicious asks Amelia not to do something reckless like that again. He doesn't want to lose someone important anymore, and he should be the one who protects her — not the other way around. Vicious was about to tell Amelia how he feels, but sadly his confession is interrupted when Nicole enters the room. It turns out that Vicious told them that Amelia is still unconscious, probably because he still wants to be alone with her.

A week later, Amelia's wounds are recovering and she can start walking again. Vicious is still looking for a chance to confess to her, but he's worried since Amelia's as dense as a brick lol. Joshua has been giving him the evil look, and it doesn't help either that Leo directly tells Amelia "Vicious is in love with you." ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ Even though Joshua wishes their relationship won't make any progress, Vicious gets a chance to express his feelings when Amelia comes to see him at night. He feels bad since she got dragged into this mess after summoning them, but she tells him she's glad to meet a "strange" person like him. Amelia agrees when Vicious says he's actually really easy to read, so he asks her to guess what he's thinking of.. then he kisses her to give the right answer.

However, Vicious' journey towards love isn't over yet. The next day, Amelia acts as if nothing happened between them. The kiss makes her feel warm and fluffy inside, but she still doesn't know what it means. (´・ω・`A；) Vicious panicks when Joshua forces them to spill the beans, but Amelia calmly says they only have a chat last night. The reason is simple though: because the last time she read a romance novel with kissing inside, Joshua took the book away saying it's prohibited. Later on Vicious also tells her everything about his past and asks if she's okay with a person like him, but sadly dumb Amelia doesn't get what he's trying to say.

When snow starts falling outside, Vicious takes Amelia to the church where she grew up. He waits until she's done greeting the priest, and then he gets straight to the point — he's going to disappear soon, and he wants the priest to take care of Amelia after he's gone. Of course he can also leave her in Joshua's hands, but they don't know what will happen in their upcoming battle. While he was only protecting Amelia as "the boss' daughter" at first, Vicious has found the reasons why he was summoned. The first is to settle things with Luciano, and the second is Amelia herself. Vicious then tells the priest that he loves Amelia, and he wants the priest to know first before he confesses to her directly.

After that Vicious turns around to Amelia, who was standing beside him the whole time, and asks her if she loves him. Surprisingly, Amelia has no doubts and quickly answers "yes!" for once. Upon hearing her answer, Vicious smiles and happily lifts her up in the air. It's the first time he ever confessed to a girl, and he's glad that the girl is her. Amelia gets embarassed and asks him to put her down, but the priest thanks Vicious for expressing his feelings in front of him. As a priest and a "father" for Amelia, the priest gives them his blessings and wishes for their happiness. Even though their time together is limited, Vicious is happy as long as he can stay with Amelia for now.

When they return to the mansion at night, Vicious knows it's time to deal with Joshua. He gets nervous and says "um.. actually.. I love.." which, for a second, makes Joshua think Vicious is confessing to him. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ Joshua rages when Vicious and Amelia tells him about their relationship, but he stops after punching Vicious in the face. It's her choice, and Joshua only wants her to be happy.. even though they know there will be hard times ahead. Joshua then asks Vicious to take care of Amelia, and he walks away looking sad. Of course Vicious feels bad, but that's only until Joshua drags him to the bar and bombards him with all sorts of questions regarding Amelia.

Since Christmas is coming closer, Amelia wants to buy a present for Vicious. Vicious says he doesn't need anything, but Amelia's mind is so occupied with this idea that she forgot to apply her ointment. The moment Amelia takes her clothes off — since the wound is on her back — Vicious comes in looking for her, blushes upon seeing the scenery, and runs out in a panic lol. He quickly says he didn't see anything, but that's obviously a lie because he then adds "I didn't expect you to have such a nice size." (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ When Amelia says nobody except Joshua ever saw her naked, Vicious bursts through the door going "WHAT!?" ..only to find out that it's when they were small.

On December 23, Amelia takes Vicious to buy a Christmas tree. On the way, Vicious tells her that he's worried about Luciano. According to Serbia, Guido's shinigami are all locked up in his mansion like lifeless dolls. Even though Luciano is weak and put him into a lot of troubles, he's just like an older brother to Vicious — he can never hate Luciano. After leaving the Christmas tree for later, Vicious takes Amelia to town.. and brings her into the hotel they visited the other day. ( *´艸`)ｸｽｯ When she says "it's the hotel where you attacked me", he blushes furiously and asks her not to bring that up again lol.

Back then Vicious pushed Amelia down because he couldn't hold back, but right now he says they're following the correct order. xD Today he's taking her here because he suddenly feels lonely, and he keeps thinking "if only we met earlier.." Vicious believes if he visited the church when he was still alive, things would be so much better. Amelia says they don't know if they would fall in love through that meeting, but Vicious hugs her saying they certainly would. Then he whispers "I love you" into her ears, and they did it in the hotel room. (*ﾉ∀ﾉ)ｲﾔﾝ Later on Amelia wakes up to find a half-naked Vicious watching her asleep, and he says he'll always protect her no matter what happens.

However, Vicious is actually planning to rescue Luciano, Gloria and medicis after Amelia goes to bed at night. Leo and Nicole are coming with him, while Joshua is staying in the mansion to protect her. Vicious is prepared to face anything, but Joshua tells him not to disappear without saying a word. Amelia's looking forward to spend Christmas Eve with him, and he should keep that in mind. Vicious says he understands, but he's got a very bad feeling about this. Just like three years ago, he finds the red pepper charm in his pocket shattered into pieces. The same thing happens to Amelia's charm, but she goes to bed without realizing what it means.

At the same time, Vicious suddenly remembers about his past. He was waiting for Luciano on a cold Christmas Eve, freezing to death all alone with a hungry stomach. As he started to fall asleep on the ground, Vicious wondered why he wasn't born in a warm family — celebrating Christmas happily like everyone else. Suddenly Vicious heard someone waking him up, and he found an unknown woman in front of his eyes. She told him not to die here, saying it's not time for him to die yet. Vicious didn't get what she meant, but the woman was already gone when he turned around. He never knew, but that woman was actually Keira's ghost.

Even though they wished Vicious' bad feeling won't come true, it's proven true as Jean warps Guido and Castro back to their mansion. At this point Guido is already drowning in desperation since he has realized that Jean has been trolling them all along, and he shoots Castro to death before ordering Luciano, Gloria and Medicis to attack Amelia's shinigami. The sight of Guido in his insanity obviously shocked Claudia, and guess who she's blaming for this? That's right, it's Amelia again. ( ಠ_ಠ ) While Jean kills Guido since his "role" is over, Claudia goes to kill Amelia in the mansion. Joshua manages to protect Amelia by burning Claudia with his flames, but he also got shot and ends up dying in Amelia's arms.

Amelia cries and desperately calls for Vicious to come back, but instead of the red-haired boy, the one who appears is our favorite troll — Jean. The final battle has begun, and Jean can't let Amelia ruin his "fun" with her order. From him, Amelia also learns that everyone will disappear by tomorrow morning, since that's the limit he set out for them. After Jean disappears, Amelia realized this isn't time for tears. She apologized to Joshua for getting him involved in this mess, and then she goes out to search for Vicious and the others.

Meanwhile, the shinigami are still fighting each other in the church where Dalenzio died. Soon Luciano awakens his shinigami power, and he uses it to make their limited time even shorter. It also eliminates the time Amelia spends searching for them, and Luciano holds her hostage the second she enters the church. Luciano keeps using his power to dodge Vicious' attacks, but eventually Vicious manages to trick Luciano and counterattacks with his shinigami power — which is to "reap" fellow shinigami. Not too long after Luciano disappears, the other four also use their power on each other and return to hell together.

When Vicious asks what happened to Joshua, Amelia starts crying again. She tries to tell him about what will happen when morning comes, and Vicious knows it must be their limit. Amelia begs him not to disappear, but sadly Vicious knows it's impossible. He can experience how it feels to be happy thanks to her, and that's more than enough to make him satisfied. When the sun starts rising, Vicious tells Amelia that he has no regrets. Even though he says he's glad to have met and fallen in love with her, a single tear rolls down and shows his real feelings. It's painful for him to leave her, but he can only apologize and finally disappears.

Three years later, Amelia is working as a sister in the church. It's been a long, painful time for her, but the priest tells her that everyone are watching her from above. It's hard for him to see Amelia in this condition, because the current her feels so empty. She hates Christmas since it brings painful memories, and she also has no desire to go anywhere. One day, Amelia goes to pick some flowers for everyone's graves. Suddenly she hears someone asking "are you done for today?", and she turns around to find Vicious standing in front of her eyes. At first Vicious blushes saying Jean forced him to come here, but then he admits he begged Jean to send him back.. and this time he won't ever leave her anymore.

Back then Vicious didn't have a chance to give Amelia her Christmas present, so he gives it to her after he returned. It's a ring he secretly bought for Amelia three years ago, and the ring is now sitting perfectly on her finger. Vicious tells Amelia that he's going to look eternally 17 until she dies, and when Amelia asks if he will still love her after she becomes an old lady.. Vicious says she should be more aware of how much he loves her. His feelings won't change even if she grows old, because now and forever, she's the only one in his heart. The final CG shows Vicious and Amelia holding their wedding in the church.

After they got married, Amelia lives with Vicious in Dalenzio's mansion. Vicious is now famous among all the kids in town, and they often visit the mansion just to play with him. However, he notices that Amelia has been looking unwell recently. When he tells Serbia about this, she only tells him to blow his breath towards Amelia and check her reaction.. which is to throw up the moment he does that. In fact, she's been throwing up a lot recently. Since Vicious doesn't get what's going on, Amelia finally tells him that she's pregnant with his child.

This causes Vicious' mind to go blank, and he loses all words other than "wait.. s-seriously?" while blushing non-stop. A few months later, Amelia gives birth to a red-haired baby.

Thanks to Jean, the good news soon reached everyone in hell too. They thought a shinigami won't be able to have kids, but since Vicious has proved it otherwise.. Nicole now wants to try it out. With Gloria. ﾌﾟｯ(※థэథ)∵.*.∵ It's against the rules that a shinigami created a new life, but who cares about rules? Jean certainly doesn't, and he's the one who made it happen anyway. Even though Jean only tells everyone it's "pure luck", Luciano was actually the one who asked Jean to let them have a baby — to make their married life more lively. It turns out that they also made a bet over the name. Luciano believes Vicious and Amelia will name their baby after him, while Jean thinks they'll name him "Dalenzio" LOL. If Jean wins, he's going to take Luciano's body to put in his spare collection.

Back in the mansion, Vicious is busy thinking of a MANLY name for the baby. The middle name is "Vicious", but he also wants a name that's easy to call for their son's future girlfriend. After brainstorming for a while, Vicious remembers that Luciano and him talked about their names in the past. Vicious didn't care about the meaning behind his own name, but Luciano told him it's important.. and Luciano hated his name because it doesn't suit him at all. Vicious then asks if Amelia minds naming their son "Luciano". He wants to be both a parent and a friend for their son, hoping that someday their son will learn about the meaning behind his name — "light".

Since Luciano wins their bet, Jean returns to hell to grant his wish. Which is for Jean himself to have a date with Nicole for a whole day. (○´ﾟωﾟ｀):;*.':;ﾌﾞｯ ..and since Nicole still wants her own babies, she drags Jean to find a bed for their "date" lol. After laughing at Jean's troubled face, Luciano then wishes for the other "Luciano" to become a person who suits the meaning of his name. A few years later, Vicious is working in an office to support his family. Their son already knows from Amelia that his father is a shinigami, and even though Vicious is worried about his reaction, "Luciano" actually finds it cool to have a shinigami father.

Just like what Vicious wished for, "Luciano" thinks of him as a father, a friend, and also a rival for Amelia's heart. Vicious tells him it's still to early for him to become his rival, but he blushes when "Luciano" calls him "papa" — his son is holding his weakness.


End file.
